THE  NEGRO 
FACES  AMERICA 


By 
HERBERT  J.  SELIGMANN 

Formerly  Member  of  the  Editorial  Staffs 

of  The  New  York  Evening  Post 

and  The  New  Republic 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS  PUBLISHERS 

NEW   YORK   AND   LONDON 


33-fc 


THB  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Copyright  ipao.  by  Harper  &  Brothers 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

Published  April,  1920 

D-U 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  THE  BLIND  SPOT 1 

II.  WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 35 

III.  THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 64 

IV.  ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 98 

•V.  CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 128 

VI.  THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 155 

VII.  THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 186 

VIII.  THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 218 

IX.  "SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 253 

X.  THE  NEW  NEGRO 281 

APPENDIX .  811 


42.1571 


FOREWORD 

I  SHOULD  apologize  for  so  impressionistic  a 
study  as  this  of  American  color  problems,  if 
apologies  were  in  order.  But  social  science,  such 
as  it  is,  has  evaded  the  subject.  Much  of  what  has 
been  offered  to  lay  readers  calls  to  mind  the  acrid 
comment  of  Mr.  Van  Wyck  Brooks  that  "to  be 
a  prophet  in  America  it  is  not  enough  to  be  totally 
uninformed;  one  must  also  have  a  bland  smile." 
I  should  like  to  banish  the  bland  smile  from  dis 
cussion  of  American  color  problems  and  to  chal 
lenge  the  shabby  indifference  with  which  the 
wrongs  of  colored  people  in  the  United  States  are 
greeted. 

With  this  humane  intent  my  expositions  and 
my  interpretations  are  perhaps  complicated.  If 
the  result  be  a  clearer  field  than  has  existed  here 
tofore  for  research  and  social  invention,  I  shall 
consider  the  polemic  elements  in  a  work,  which 
should  have  been  undertaken  by  a  trained  sociolo 
gist,  to  have  been  not  wholly  unjustified.  In  ex 
tenuation  for  having  written  I  have  no  plea  except 
that  of  my  observations,  which  must  be  judged 


FOREWORD 

accurate  or  inaccurate  on  their  merits.  For  much 
of  the  material  which  made  those  observations 
possible  I  am  indebted  to  the  officers  and  to 
members  of  the  staff  of  the  National  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People. 

H.  J.  S. 

May  22, 1920. 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  uniqueness  and  pathos  of  the  Negro  prob 
lem  in  the  United  States  rest  in  the  fact  that  so 
few  Americans  recognize  it  as  a  problem.  The 
average  attitude  is  that  a  pretty  good  job  is  being 
made  of  a  very  trying  situation;  as  to  the  occasion 
al  suggestion  of  possible  tragic  developments  in  the 
future,  unless  the  whole  matter  is  definitely  taken 
in  hand,  a  flippant  and  naive  remark  as  to  the 
valor  of  American  manhood  is  usually  deemed 
sufficient.  Among  the  more  serious  agencies  at 
work,  aiming  at  a  more  enlightened  attitude 
toward  the  race  problem,  may  be  mentioned  the 
intensely  race-conscious  activity  of  DuBois  and 
the  broader  and  less  emotionalized  activity,  on  a 
national  basis,  of  Spingarn.  To  these  must  now 
be  added  the  name  of  Mr.  Herbert  J.  Seligmann, 
the  young  author  of  this  volume. 

In  close  touch  with  the  scientific  and  social 
facts,  the  author  reviews  the  conclusions  of  an 
thropologists  with  reference  to  alleged  racial 
differences  in  capacity,  analyzes  the  social  and 
psychological  factors  at  work  in  different  parts 
of  the  country  where  the  race  question  is  acute, 
lays  bare  the  sinister  influence  of  selfish  and 
callous  individuals  on  whom  must  in  large  meas- 


INTRODUCTION 

ure  rest  the  responsibility  for  the  more  tragic 
aspects  of  the  Negro  situation,  and  by  his  sym 
pathetic  and  obviously  open-minded  attitude 
toward  the  future  almost  succeeds  in  creating 
a  definitely  optimistic  mood. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  will  not  be  the  last 
of  the  author's  contributions,  and  that  he  will 
before  long  have  the  opportunity  to  deal  with 
ever-increasing  technical  skill,  with  the  several 
special  aspects  of  the  Negro  problem  which  have 
long  been  awaiting  an  enthusiastic,  able,  and 
courageous  protagonist. 

A.   A.    GOLDENWEISER. 

The  New  School  for  Social  Research, 
NEW  YORK. 


THE   NEGRO   FACES   AMERICA 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 


THE   BLIND   SPOT 

INTO  the  nerve  fiber  of  the  United  States 
are  woven  strands  which  bind  Negro  and 
white  Americans.  The  Civil  War  lacerated 
the  nation's  nervous  system.  Slight  occasion 
only  is  needed  in  order  to  recall  suffering  and 
hatred  to  memories  still  fiercely  active.  The 
condition  of  public  feeling  with  regard  to  race 
is  one  of  disease.  The  past  lives  on  uncon- 
quered  and  poisons  the  present.  Slavery  is 
legally  abolished,  but  neither  white  men  nor 
Negro  men  are  free  of  a  constant  preoccupa 
tion  with  color.  It  is  still  possible  to  divide 
public  opinion  in  the  United  States  with  re 
gard  to  race  problems  on  the  artificial  basis  of 
geography,  and  this  division  is  reinforced  by 
tradition.  A  vast  discussion  goes  on,  punctu 
ated  by  race  riots  and  lynchings,  thunderous 

with  invective,  in  which  the  conversational 
i  i 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

tone  of  the  scientist  is  almost  inaudible.  Many 
of  the  disputants'  feelings,  passionately  in 
tense,  colored  with  every  sort  of  gossip,  ru 
mor,  and  half-truth,  never  find  their  way  to 
frank  expression  in  words.  The  emotions  that 
have  been  at  one  time  or  another  fanned  into 
flame  as  between  white  man  and  Negro;  con 
flicts  over  field,  shop,  and  factory;  pride  of 
race  and  assertions  of  human  prerogatives;  the 
rights  of  man  and  the  defense  of  womanhood; 
education,  political  contest,  the  home,  public 
travel,  have  all  become  involved.  Last  of  all, 
the  emergence  of  the  United  States  from  her 
"splendid  isolation"  through  war  into  the 
desolation  of  a  crumbling  world  has  been  ac 
companied  by  new  and  ominous  twinges  in  the 
nerves  of  race  relations. 

It  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to 
point  to  a  single  political  or  social  problem 
of  importance  in  the  United  States  which 
does  not  debouch  upon  race  and  what  by 
common  consent  is  known  as  "the"  race 
problem.  School,  home,  factory,  mine,  farm, 
the  polling-booth,  the  railway,  are  all  made 
its  vehicles.  Every  manifestation  of  the  so 
cial  will  hesitates  at  the  inevitable  race 
considerations. 

This  welter  has  been  lumped  into  a  "prob- 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

lem"  whose  symbol  is  black.  Those  who 
wear  the  burnished  livery  of  the  sun  have 
been  dehumanized  and  made  into  problems 
also — from  twelve  million  to  fifteen  million 
problems,  children  in  the  cradle,  school  boys 
and  girls,  men  and  women.  Negro  Americans, 
on  the  other  hand,  fiercely  resent  being  looked 
upon  as  a  problem.  They  feel  themselves  to 
be  a  challenge  that  may  well  become  retribu 
tion.  The  challenge  of  the  race  problem  con 
fronts  all  Americans,  white  and  black,  North 
and  South.  Few  Southerners  but  have  learned 
the  history  of  New  England  merchant  cap 
tains'  adventures  in  rum  and  slaves  on  the 
west  coast  of  Africa  or  have  forgotten  the 
memorable  carrying  trade.  The  Negro  is 
constantly  reminded  that  what  he  does  or 
fails  to  do  is  visited  upon  his  race,  and  that 
he  is  his  colored  brother's  keeper.  The  white 
man  of  the  North,  who  might  be  inclined  to 
lull  himself  into  forgetfulness,  wakes  at  the 
sound  of  shooting  down  his  streets.  He  has 
heard  echoes  of  race  and  the  race  problem  in 
the  speeches  of  United  States  Senators  dis 
cussing  the  League  of  Nations.  Any  one  even 
slightly  informed  of  American  institutions, 
traditions,  politics,  art,  society,  has  known 
that  all  the  nation  has  been  in  the  same  boat 

3 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

with  regard  to  the  race  problem.  The  United 
States  has  at  various  times  been  known  abroad 
as  the  nation  of  jazz.  It  is  not  only  the 
antagonisms  of  race  that  make  the  land  con 
scious  of  itself;  its  arts  and  its  amusements 
have  begun  to  feed  this  consciousness.  In  no 
activity  is  art  so  near  to  amusement  and 
amusement  so  near  art  as  in  the  peculiar 
rhythms  of  American  Negro  song.  Unfortu 
nately,  before  it  was  realized  that  Americans 
cannot  afford  to  be  cosmopolitan  when  they 
speak  of  commerce,  and  parochial  when  they 
think  and  speak  of  race,  race  relations  had  to 
be  made  into  melodrama.  In  a  world  com 
posed  for  the  most  part  of  colored  races,  fully 
embarked  on  new  adventures  toward  au 
tonomy,  Americans  had  to  be  reminded  not 
only  by  a  great  northward  migration  of 
colored  people  during  the  war,  but  by  race 
riots,  chiefly  in  1919,  that  new  movements  and 
aspirations  were  stirring  on  their  own  con 
tinent.  It  was  blood-letting  in  the  streets 
of  American  cities  that  accomplished  anxious 
heart-searchings  that  were  long  overdue. 

A  first  step  in  an  attempt  upon  the  hates, 
distrusts,  and  preconceptions  clustered  about 
race  is  to  separate  and  examine  them.  There 
is,  in  fact,  no  race  problem  in  the  United 

4 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

States.  There  are  a  thousand  problems  with 
which  race  is  more  or  less  connected,  fre 
quently  deliberately  connected  for  an  ulterior 
motive,  in  the  absence  of  organic  connection 
between  race  distinctions  and  the  subject  at 
issue.  To  take  these  thousand  problems  of 
education,  politics,  industry,  and  lump  them 
is  to  give  over  to  emotion  what  should  be  the 
province  of  study  and  social  invention.  The 
process  is  best  illustrated  by  two  questions: 
"Do  you  want  your  daughter  to  marry  a 
nigger?"  is  a  Southern  summation  of  and 
for  white  men.  That  is  a  reduction  of  the 
race  problem  to  what  many  conceive  to  be  its 
lowest  and  most  fundamental  terms.  "Shall 
I  be  set  apart  like  a  leper,  insulted,  denied 
justice,  and  lynched  because  I  am  accused  of 
wanting  to  marry  the  white  man's  daughter?" 
retorts  the  Negro.  "And  shall  the  white  man 
have  children  by  my  daughter  and  be  pro 
hibited  by  law  from  marrying  her?"  To 
leave  race  relations  at  this  point  is  to  create 
an  impasse.  There  is  no  answer  to  either  of 
the  questions.  If  every  time  the  Negro  de 
mands  better  housing  and  schooling  for  his 
children,  justice  in  the  courts,  equal  oppor 
tunity  for  employment,  he  is  to  be  denied 
them  on  the  ground  that  it  means  race  amal- 

5 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

gamation,  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  leave 
the  issue  to  arms  and  to  maintain  a  white 
army  sufficient  to  keep  the  subject  race  in 
subjection.  Fortunately  there  is  much  evi 
dence  that  race  problems  are  not  merely 
biological,  that  they  are  susceptible  to  social 
invention  and  intelligent  manipulation.  Such 
evidence  was  presented  as  perhaps  never  be 
fore  in  the  race  riots  that  occurred  in  the 
United  States  during  and  immediately  after 
the  end  of  the  World  War. 

If  white  Americans  are  minded  to  accept 
the  evidence  so  crudely  offered,  they  may  be 
in  a  position  to  absorb  consciously,  as  they 
have  not  done,  the  cultural  contributions  of 
their  colored  neighbors.  Colored  Americans 
may  then  be  liberated  from  the  pressure 
which  no  one  realizes  better  than  their  own 
leaders  is  cramping  their  efforts,  making  them 
provincial  and  yet  critically  aloof,  bitterly 
conscious  of  themselves  as  a  hostile  group 
in  an  ill-ordered  community.  Granted  that 
there  are  distrusts  and  hostilities  that  come  of 
superficial  differences  between  men,  like  color, 
or  like  follicular  structure  of  the  hair  differen 
tiating  kinky  from  straight,  it  is  a  savage 
thing  for  white  men  who  call  themselves  civil 
ized  to  let  such  primitive  impulses  determine 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

their  conduct.  Yet  the  history  of  race  rela 
tions  in  the  United  States,  a  history  only  as 
yet  included  in  larger  and  more  diffuse  stud 
ies,  or  suggested  in  biographies,  essays,  and 
memoirs,  will  show  the  dominance  of  these 
primitive  impulses  in  an  attack  upon  the 
nation's  deepest-rooted  and  most  pressing 
difficulties. 

To  those  who  insist  that  racial  antipathies 
must  be  allowed  to  determine  race  relations 
there  are  two  replies:  First,  that  to  do  so 
brings,  as  it  has  brought,  violence.  Second, 
that  there  is  overwhelming  evidence  to  show 
that  race  antipathy  is  not  even  skin  deep. 
The  decrease  in  illicit  sex  relations  between 
white  and  colored  people  of  the  South,  where 
intermarriage  is  illegal,  is  due  not  to  instinctive 
aversion,  but  to  the  pressure  of  public  opinion. 
When  it  used  to  be  regarded  as  an  enter 
taining  foible  for  white  men  of  prominence 
to  maintain  colored  families  without  benefit 
of  clergy,  the  practice  was  fairly  common. 
Now  that  exposure  of  such  relationships 
would  ruin  any  aspirant's  political  and  social 
career,  white  men  are  more  wary  and  illicit 
relationships  of  the  sort  are  said  to  be  de 
creasing  in  number.  A  dangerous  error  of 
persons  who  insist  on  the  validity  of  "racial 

7 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

antipathy"  is  to  assume  that  the  exceptional 
conditions  which  prevail  in  the  United  States 
are  typical.  But  nowhere  else  have  economic 
considerations  and  race  relations  been  joined 
as  issues  in  armed  conflict  as  in  the  Civil 
War.  Of  Latin  America,  Professor  Shepherd 
tells  us  that  "properly  speaking  there  is  no 
race  question  .  .  .  because  from  the  colonial 
period  onward  the  ethnical  elements  have 
tended  to  become  merged  into  a  new  divi 
sion  of  mankind."  1  In  the  circumstances  it  is 
incumbent  on  the  upholders  of  racial  antipa 
thy's  function  in  a  democracy  to  show  that 
it  is  operative  and  effective. 

Much  of  the  bitterness  that  has  befogged 
discussion  of  race  problems  has  proceeded 
from  observations  honestly  made  in  past 
years,  but  since  discredited  by  anthropolo 
gists.  Many  passionate  Unionists,  during 
the  Civil  War  even,  were  convinced  of  an 
essential  "racial  inferiority"  of  the  Negro, 
and  allowed  their  beliefs,  on  wrhich  investiga 
tion  has  thrown  new  light,  to  erect  obstacles 
to  Negro  participation  in  the  state  and  in 
society.  No  less  a  contributor  to  our  knowl 
edge  than  Louis  Agassiz  wrote  in  1863  that 

1  William  R.  Shepherd,  Latin  America,  p.  123.     New  York:  Henry 
Holt.  &  Co. 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

on  Egyptian  monuments  "the  Negroes  are 
so  represented  as  to  show  that  in  natural 
propensities  and  mental  abilities  they  were 
pretty  much  what  we  find  them  at  the  present 
day  —  indolent,  playful,  sensual,  imitative, 
subservient,  good-natured,  versatile,  unsteady 
in  their  purpose,  devoted,  and  affectionate. 
.  .  .  While  Egypt  and  Carthage  grew  into 
powerful  empires  and  attained  a  high  degree 
of  civilization;  while  in  Babylon,  Syria,  and 
Greece  were  developed  the  highest  culture 
of  antiquity,  the  Negro  race  groped  in  bar 
barism  and  never  originated  a  regular  organi 
zation  among  themselves."  The  conclusions 
of  Agassiz  left  him  unprepared  "  to  state  what 
political  privileges  they  are  fit  to  enjoy  now; 
though  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
they  should  be  equal  to  other  men  before 
the  law."  1 

But  since  1863  the  sciences  of  men  have 
become  distrustful  of  "natural  propensities"; 
and  even  of  races  which  have  been  most 
carefully  studied  anthropologists  hesitate  to 
say  what  are  their  racial  characteristics. 
Furthermore,  modern  anthropology  does  not 
credit  white  men  with  having  changed  racially, 

1  James  Ford  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  VI,   Chap. 
XXXI,  letter  from  Agassiz  to  Dr.  Samuel  G.Howe.    1863.    Pp.  37.  38. 

9 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

in  so  far  as  their  natural  propensities  are 
concerned,  since  the  Egyptian  artificers  made 
the  monuments  to  which  Agassiz  refers.  It 
would  be  as  fair  to  deduce  the  disposition 
of  present-day  white  men  from  monuments 
contemporaneous  with  those  erected  by  the 
Pharaohs  as  to  attach  significance  to  the 
characters  of  ancient  sculptured  Negro  faces. 
Comment  of  which  that  of  Agassiz  is  typical 
still  passes  current,  however,  and  is  given  the 
force  of  dogma  by  those  predisposed  to  it. 

Many  of  the  dogmas  about  the  Negro 
which  find  astonishingly  wide  acceptance 
are  of  such  general  and  inclusive  nature  that 
they  can  be  immediately  disposed  of.  For 
example,  the  one  which  has  it  that  the  Negro 
is  by  nature  indolent  and  lacking  in  per 
sistence,  because  he  comes  of  a  savage  race 
and  savages  have  those  characteristics,  is  not 
borne  out  by  observation.  Savages  of  many 
tribes  in  various  parts  of  the  world  display 
extraordinary  pertinacity.  With  inferior  im 
plements  they  laboriously  achieve  results 
which  the  white  man  would  hesitate  to  attempt 
because  of  the  sustained  and  arduous  labor 
involved.  To  cut  down  a  tree  with  stone 
hatchets  and  then  to  make  a  canoe  from  the 

trunk  by  burning     out  the  core  is  no  task 

10 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

for  the  indolent  or  the  man  of  unsteady 
purpose.  All  of  the  beliefs  held  about  the 
Negro  by  white  men,  more  or  less  misinformed, 
constitute  one  of  the  main  problems  of  race 
in  the  United  States.  It  is  a  problem  inten 
sified  rather  than  lessened  by  such  means 
of  communication  as  the  press.  Whether 
or  not  the  Negro  is  what  his  bitterest  enemy 
says  of  him  hardly  matters.  If  any  body  of 
public  opinion  can  be  organized  upon  mis- 
statements  as  a  foundation,  all  public  dis 
cussion  will  be  colored  by  the  most  obvious 
fabrications  and  absurdities. 

There  is  the  utmost  hesitance,  for  example, 
to  trace  to  its  lair  the  gossip  from  Civil  War 
days  which  still  lives  on.  The  nation  is 
expected,  when  enforcement  of  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment  to  the  United  States  Constitu 
tion  is  suggested,  to  thrill  with  horror  at  the 
mere  thought  of  "Negro  domination"  in  the 
South.  If  Negroes  were  conceived  to  be 
human  beings  like  many  another  human 
being,  educable  and  educated,  adapted  to 
the  processes  of  American  government  and 
appreciative  that  liberty  for  oneself  implies 
liberty  for  others,  Negro  domination  would 
have  no  immense  terrors.  But  paint  the 

Negro's  portrait  as  of  a  sullen  black  brute, 

11 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

criminal  when  he  has  opportunity  to  be, 
intent  upon  debasing  the  limpid  intellectuality 
of  the  superior  race  by  admixing  his  own  base 
blood,  desirous  chiefly  of  dining  with  the 
white  man  and  of  marrying  his  daughter, 
incapable  of  intellectual  development  after 
he  has  reached  the  age  of  fourteen  years, 
then  you  have  laid  the  basis  for  assertions 
like  that  of  Senator  John  Sharpe  Williams, 
that  race  transcends  the  Constitution;  and 
for  sympathetic  response  to  the  statement 
that,  come  what  will,  no  Negro  will  ever  vote 
in  a  state  like  South  Carolina,  where  in  1910 
there  were  835,843  Negroes  and  679,161 
white  men.  Of  misinformation  and  terror 
it  is  difficult  to  say  which  has  played  the 
greater  part  in  preventing  a  decent  adjust 
ment  of  the  Negro's  claims  to  the  ballot 
and  to  other  prerogatives  of  citizenship. 

It  is  possible  to  take  any  group  of  a  race, 
as  is  frequently  done  in  the  case  of  Negroes, 
and  point  to  its  members  as  uneducated, 
vagrant,  unfit  for  civic  responsibilities.  But 
to  erect  the  ignorance  of  men,  to  whom  their 
state  has  denied  education,  into  a  threat  of 
domination  by  the  ignorant  and  the  brutal 
is  as  fantastic  as  to  say  that  ignorance  is 

proof  of  the  uselessness  of  education.     Such 

12 


THE  BUND  SPOT 

absurdities  would  hardly  be  the  province  of 
serious  discussion  of  race  relations  if  they 
did  not  frequently  even  yet  form  the  body  of 
discussion  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States. 
Much  water  has  run  under  many  bridges 
since  President  Andrew  Johnson  and  a  Con 
gress  he  antagonized  bungled  the  matter  of 
readjusting  the  seceded  Southern  states  to 
the  Union. 

But  the  South  to-day  still  feeds  upon  the 
stories  of  carpet-bagger  dominion,  the  "black 
and  tan"  Constitutional  Convention  of  Mis 
sissippi  with  its  extravagance,  and  the  finan 
cial  orgies  of  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina 
legislatures.  Historians  of  the  first  rank, 
even,  have  not  escaped  the  tendency  to  touch 
lightly  the  pride  and  the  humiliation  of  men 
who  found  their  former  slaves  not  only  no 
longer  their  possessions — an  economic  loss — 
but  were  expected  to  tolerate  disfranchise- 
ment  while  those  abhorred  men  voted.  The 
present  generation  is  in  danger  of  hardening 
reticence  into  doctrine,  of  making  monuments 
of  past  sorrows  and  humiliations  which  bar 
the  way  to  effective  discussion  and  progress. 
If,  as  is  asserted,  carpet-bag  rule  and  the 
participation  of  uneducated  Negroes  in  state 
government  resulted  in  tragic  waste  and 

18 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

terrible  conditions  of  social  disorganization, 
it  must  still  be  borne  in  mind  that  men 
blame  what  they  oppose  for  all  their  mis 
fortunes  rather  than  trace  those  misfortunes 
dispassionately  to  their  source.  With  all  the 
suffering  and  the  losses  imposed  upon  the 
South — as  upon  any  region  in  which  war  is 
waged — the  offer  of  Congress  to  the  Southern 
states,  "compared  with  the  settlement  of 
any  other  notable  civil  war  by  a  complete 
victor,"  as  James  Ford  Rhodes  points  out, 
was  "magnanimous  in  a  high  degree.  It 
involved  no  executions,  no  confiscation  of 
property,  no  imprisonments.  ...  It  vouch 
safed  to  the  Southern  states  the  management 
of  their  own  local  affairs  subject  to  the  recog 
nition  of  the  civil  rights  of  the  Negroes,  to 
the  Freedmen's  Bureau  limited  in  time,  and 
to  a  temporary  military  occupation."  His 
tory  is  irrelevant  except  as  it  continues  to 
live  on  in  the  present.  And  Rhodes's  char 
acterization  of  the  attitude  of  the  former 
slaveholders  toward  the  Negro  is  significant 
in  this  discussion.  Pointing  out  that  the 
slaveholder  did  not  hate  the  Negro,  he 
continues,  "They  did  not  believe  that  he 
could  rise  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  nor  did 
they  wish  him  to  rise,  and  they  were  indignant 

14 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

at  the  mention  of  a  possible  political  or  social 
equality."  This  attitude  was  made  effective, 
according  to  the  report  which  Carl  Schurz 
sent  the  President.  Of  the  people  of  the 
South,  he  said,  that  "while  accepting  the 
6  abolition  of  slavery/  they  think  that  some 
species  of  serfdom,  peonage,  or  other  form  of 
compulsory  labor  is  not  slavery  and  may  be 
introduced  without  a  violation  of  their  pledge. 
Although  formally  admitting  Negro  testimony, 
they  think  that  Negro  testimony  will  be  taken 
practically  for  what  they  themselves  consider 
it4  worth.'"1  The  so-called  "Black  Codes" 
would  have  perpetuated  what  the  moral 
judgment  of  the  nation  and  the  decision  of 
arms  had  condemned.  By  act  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  legislature  of  1865  a  poll  tax  of  one 
dollar  was  imposed  upon  Negroes  between 
the  ages  of  eighteen  and  sixty.  "Failure  to 
pay  the  tax,"  says  Garner,  "was  to  be  deemed 
prima  facie  evidence  of  vagrancy,  and  it  was 
made  the  duty  of  the  sheriff  to  arrest  the 
offender  and  hire  him  out  for  the  amount  of 
the  tax  plus  the  costs.  .  .  .  Civil  officers  were 
required  to  arrest  freedmen  who  should  run 
away  from  their  contracts  and  carry  them 

1  James  Ford  Rhodes,  Uistory  of  the  United  Stales,  Vol.  V.  Chap. 
XXX  p.  553. 

15 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

back  to  the  place  of  employment."  l  The 
Black  Codes,  says  Mr.  Paul  Leland  Haworth, 
"were  in  part  an  honest  effort  to  meet  a 
difficult  situation,  but  the  old  slavery  attitude 
toward  the  Negro  peered  through  most  of 
them  and  gave  proof  that  their  framers  did 
not  yet  realize  that  the  old  order  had  passed 
away."  2  That  old  orders  do  not  speedily 
pass  away  has  been  almost  too  often  demon 
strated,  especially  when  the  old  order  is  so 
inwoven  in  current  thought  and  utterance 
that  its  influence  is  to  most  persons  imper 
ceptible.  To  an  extent  that  few  Americans 
realize  the  old  order  persists.  It  is  justified 
on  the  ground  of  a  variety  of  necessities,  and 
draws  into  its  entanglements  human  and 
political  relations  of  every  sort.  It  can 
stand  against  law  and  legislation  better  than 
against  pitiless  statement  and  publication 
of  fact. 

If  the  Black  Codes  throw  light  on  the 
opposition  to  the  Negro's  economic  advance 
ment  which  persists  to  this  day,  present 
talk  of  Negro  domination  is  illumined  by  the 
report  of  the  joint  committee  of  Congress 

1  James    Wilford    Garner,    Reconstruction    in    Mississippi,    1901. 
New  York:  Macinillan  Company.     Pp.  114,  115. 

-  Paul    Ldaiul    Haworlh,  Reconstruction   and    Union,    lStio-l'J12r 
New  York;  Henry  Holt  &  Co.    P.  10. 

1C 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

into  the  activities  of  the  Ku-Klux  Klan. 
There  is  a  wide  divergence  of  opinion  as  to 
the  justification  for  the  outrages  which  were 
visited  upon  Unionists  and  Negro  Republicans 
in  the  South.  Justification  is  sought  in 
the  dangers  from  criminal  vagrants,  and  the 
Ku-Klux  bands  who  spread  terror  are  com 
pared  with  the  posse  comitatus  of  the  West 
which  rid  the  surrounding  country  of  horse- 
thieves  and  gamblers.  But  the  divergence 
of  opinion  extends  even  to  Southerners.  With 
out  imputing  exclusively  political  motives 
to  the  white  brotherhood,  it  is  still  possible 
to  question  the  necessity  for  what  was  done, 
to  inquire  if  fear  rather  than  fact  was  not  its 
motive  impulse.  Gen.  J.  B.  Gordon,  who 
commanded  the  left  wing  of  Lee's  army  at  the 
surrender,  was  asked  by  the  joint  committee: 

"Have  the  Negroes,  as  a  general  thing, 
behaved  well  since  the  war?" 

His  reply  was,  "They  have  behaved  so  well 
that  the  remark  is  not  uncommon  in  Georgia 
that  no  race  on  earth,  relieved  from  servitude 
under  such  circumstances  as  they  wrere,  would 
have  behaved  so  well."  1 


1  Report  of  the  Joint  Select  Committee  to  Inquire  into  the  Condi 
tion  of  Affairs  in  the  late  Insurrectionary  States,  1872,  Vol.  I,  p.  53. 
Washington:  Government  Printing  Office. 

2  17 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

The  faith  which  Negro  slaves  kept  with 
their  masters  absent  in  the  war,  caring  for 
white  families,  guarding  white  women  and 
children,  is  proverbial.  Under  the  circum 
stances,  the  actions  of  the  white  South  during 
Reconstruction  are  referable  rather  to  emotion 
than  to  situations  requiring  drastic  response. 

"The  excuse  that  the  whites  were  goaded 
into  such  outrages  by  the  evils  of  Negro 
domination,"  says  Doctor  Haworth  of  the 
Ku-Klux,  "is  true  only  in  part,  for  the  Klans 
displayed  notable  activity  in  opposing  the 
new  state  constitutions  and  in  the  election  of 
state  officers  before  the  blacks  were  yet  in 
power."  l 

"The  five  and  a  half  million  wiiites,"  says 
Rhodes,  "who  were  legislating  for  three  and  a 
half  million  blacks  were  under  the  influence 
of  'the  black  terror'  which  was  not  known 
and  therefore  not  appreciated  at  the  North. 
Many  of  the  laws  were  neither  right  nor  far- 
sighted,  but  they  were  natural."  And  then, 
as  if  to  clinch  the  efficacy  of  the  "terror" 
motive,  he  adds,  "The  enactments  the  least 
liberal  as  to  civil  rights  and  the  most  rigorous 
as  to  punishment  of  misdemeanors  and  crimes 
were  those  of  South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  and 

1  Op.  cit.,    pp.  44,  45. 
18 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

Louisiana,  in  which  states  the  proportion  of 
Negroes  to  white  men  was  the  largest." 1 
Situations  change,  but  the  style  of  argumenta 
tion  on  the  race  question  seems  forever  to 
continue  unchanged.  In  fifty -four  years  Ne 
groes  in  the  United  States  demonstrated 
that  not  only  could  they  acquire  the  funda 
mentals  of  education  necessary  to  partici 
pation  in  the  processes  of  democratic  govern 
ment,  but  they  have  made  progress  that 
would  be  considered  extraordinary  when  meas 
ured  by  any  standards.  Against  the  initial 
opposition  and  disbelief  expressed  in  the 
Black  Codes  and  subsequent  disfranchisement 
in  the  Southern  states;  against  the  repression 
most  violently  imposed  by  the  Ku-Klux 
and  still  a  part  of  the  code  of  many  white 
Americans,  they  have  with  relentless  deter 
mination  built  business  enterprise,  gone  to  the 
land  and  made  it  yield  to  them,  fought  their 
way  by  sheer  work  and  talent  into  the  closed 
ranks  of  the  professions,  furnished  to  the 
United  States  government  district  attorneys, 
consular  and  diplomatic  officers,  and  against 
most  determined  opposition,  military  leaders 
and  soldiers.  In  the  commerce  between  cult 
ured  representatives  of  the  Negro  and  white 

1  Op.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  Chap.  XXX,  p.  558. 
19 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

races,  where  the  Negro  is  freed  from  the 
attitude  of  defense  and  awkward  apprehen 
sion,  and  the  white  man  has  progressed  beyond 
the  savage  canon  which  says  that  strangers 
are  enemies,  a  reciprocity  becomes  possible 
that  has  a  slight  zest  of  adventure  and  chal 
lenges  perception.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  such  friendships,  which  the  Southern  code 
would  bar,  distinctions  of  color  are  as  extrane 
ous  as  those  of  nationality.  It  is  at  once 
tragic  and  laughable  that  the  meanest  white 
man  whose  universe  is  bounded  by  his  local 
newspaper  and  his  own  hates  should  take 
precedence  over  the  colored  student  and 
artist;  it  is  one  of  those  ironies  of  which  the 
world  is  prodigal  that  by  a  rigid  dogma 
enforced  with  all  the  conviction  of  inquisi 
tion,  bounds  should  be  set  to  the  work  of  the 
scientist,  that  people  should  be  misinformed, 
hates  perpetuated  and  introduced  in  new 
fields,  creative  spirits  checked  and  frustrated. 
As  the  emphasis  of  the  modern  state  shifts 
and  inclines  from  political  achievement  to 
the  task  of  freeing  men  from  the  imposition 
of  the  deadening  task  and  the  drudgery  of 
overwork,  there  come  to  mind  words  spoken 
by  Governor  Humphreys  of  Mississippi  in  his 


inaugural  of  1865: 


20 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

"The  Negro,  he  said,  was  free,  whether 
the  people  liked  it  or  not,  but  freedom  did 
not  make  him  a  citizen  or  entitle  him  to 
political  or  social  equality  with  white  men."  l 

In  those  places  where  the  Negro  has  achieved 
political  equality  with  white  men,  that  free 
dom  still  does  not  give  him  industrial  equality. 
The  Negro  student  of  law,  the  university 
graduate,  too  often  is  free  to  vote  in  the  same 
booth  with  the  white  man,  but  must  seek 
employment  as  a  Pullman  porter.  Of  the 
denial  of  opportunity  in  the  North  which 
still  prevails  there  is  a  survey  in  Miss  Mary 
White  Ovington's  Half  a  Man. 

Complications  of  political  problems  by 
passions  rooted  in  race  and  sex  are  carried 
over  into  industry  and  for  a  time  will  make 
social  organizations  more  difficult.  If  the 
prejudice  against  the  Negro's  voting  and 
holding  office  is  a  matter  of  balance  of  power, 
the  excuse  being  his  alleged  unfitness,  the 
prejudice  against  him  in  industry  will  have 
to  be  met  by  extraordinary  proof. 

Unfortunately,  the  problem  of  the  Negro's 
participation  in  political  and  civil  life  has 
seldom  received  precise  formulation.  It  is 
admitted,  though  not  universally,  that  he 

1  Garner.     Op.cil.tp.  III. 
21 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

should  be  the  equal  of  the  white  man  before 
the  law.  The  inequality  here  is  in  part  a 
corollary  of  the  development  of  law  and  legal 
procedure  as  instruments  of  class.  In  part 
it  is  due  to  a  habit  of  mind  so  inured  to  prej 
udice  that  injustice  and  discrimination  be 
come  routine.  The  demands  of  the  political 
state  differ  from  the  demand  of  blind  justice 
whose  unseeing  gaze  supposedly  rests  neither 
on  dark  skin  nor  meager  purse.  But  the 
political  state  and  democracy  especially  are 
entitled  to  no  further  questions  than:  Can 
you  read  and  write?  Are  you  capable  of  un 
derstanding  the  issues  upon  which,  as  an  elec 
tor,  you  will  be  required  to  pass?  With  these 
questions  the  peculiar  biological  disposition  of 
the  Negro  has  nothing  to  do.  Granted  that  he 
might  in  his  own  environment,  played  upon  by 
streams  of  culture— the  arts,  literature,  political 
thought — evolve  a  civilization  different  from 
the  one  in  which  he  is  placed.  The  question  re 
mains  :  Can  and  does  the  colored  citizen  of  the 
United  States  conform  to  the  minimum  require 
ments  of  political  democracy?  If  he  can  and 
does  meet  the  test,  which  in  effect  asks  him  if 
he  is  a  human  being,  by  what  justification  is 
he  deprived  of  his  prerogative?  To  state  the 
question  is  to  answer  it.  Politics  has  no 

22 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

concern,  under  the  theory  which  is  supposed 
to  dominate  American  procedure,  with  ques 
tions  properly  referable  to  anthropologists. 
Those  questions,  be  it  said,  involve  measure 
ments  and  observations  more  delicate  than 
would  be  conceded  by  the  persons  who  invoke 
the  questions.  In  the  play  of  political  life, 
which  has  consisted  in  endeavoring  to  make 
recalcitrant  fact  fit  the  mold  of  men's  desire, 
the  colored  United  States  citizen  has  been 
the  victim  of  extraneous  issues,  created  and 
constantly  invoked  by  those  who  in  effect 
want  to  divorce  the  practice  of  American 
government  from  the  affirmations  upon  which, 
presumptively,  it  rests. 

Such  discussion  seems  academic  when  it  is 
opposed  to  the  brute  realities  with  which 
American  public  opinion  is  faced.  Colored 
citizens  of  the  United  States  are  still  pub 
licly  burned  alive  at  the  stake.  Much  edi 
torial  discussion  states  rather  than  implies 
that  colored  people  are  less  than  beasts  of  the 
field.  Many  a  Mississippian  will  affirm,  as 
the  Jackson,  Mississippi,  Daily  News  did  on 
June  20,  1919,  "that  the  door  of  hope  is 
forever  closed  to  the  Negro,  in  so  far  as  partic 
ipation  in  politics  is  concerned,  and  there  is 
no  appeal  from  that  decree." 

23 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

That  remark  was  accompanied  by  a  thinly 
veiled  threat  against  a  propaganda  conducted 
by  the  "Lincoln  League  of  America":  "If 
this  propaganda  is  to  embrace  the  desire  to 
vote,  then  it  had  better  be  located  north  of 
the  Ohio  River.  It  will  not  be  safe  in  Mem 
phis  and  its  issuance  of  propaganda  will  be 
short-lived." 

Propaganda  embracing  "the  desire  to 
vote"  unsafe  south  of  the  Ohio  River?  The 
question  is  one  which,  if  pursued,  would  throw 
much  light  on  tolerance  south  of  the  Ohio 
River,  and  the  effect  of  that  peculiar  sort  of 
tolerance  on  the  right  to  hold  opinions  and 
express  them  elsewhere  in  the  United  States. 
It  will  be  observed  that  the  discrimination 
is  categorical — color  divides  the  country.  It 
is  an  unfortunate  division  to  perpetuate  in 
political  and  social  life. 

All  human  values  are  put  in  the  scales 
that  are  tipped  against  the  Negro.  It  is 
almost  a  commonplace  of  civilized  dogma 
that  the  brutal  man  hurts  himself  more 
deeply  than  he  does  the  object  of  his  brutality. 
Yet  this  observation,  typical  of  civilization, 
seems  to  have  little  practical  effect  on  the 
conduct  of  many  white  Americans  toward 
the  Negro.  Lynching,  the  public  murder, 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

often  with  unspeakable  mutilations  and  tort 
ure,  of  colored  men  will  be  spoken  of  as 
though  it  occurred  only  in  rural  communities 
where  social  organization  approximates  that 
of  frontiers  throughout  the  world.  But  from 
this  point  of  view  a  large  portion  of  the  United 
States  still  consists  of  frontier;  its  civilization 
is  in  the  making.  The  country  enjoyed  the 
spectacle  in  July,  1919,  of  a  Governor  of 
Mississippi  hesitating  to  prevent  what  was 
announced  in  glaring  newspaper  head-lines 
would  be  a  burning  at  stake,  on  the  ground 
that  an  overwhelming  public  sentiment  in 
his  state  made  him  powerless.  It  matters 
little  that  the  Negro  was  accused  of  "the  one 
crime,"  rape.  Even  if,  as  one  colored  news 
paper  affirmed  was  the  case,  the  victim  had 
been  guilty  of  attracting  the  regard  of,  and 
not  of  assaulting,  a  white  woman,  the  penalty 
would  still  have  been  death.  For  with  the 
rope,  the  torch,  the  pistol,  that  Negro  is 
answered  who  so  much  as  gives  occasion  for 
believing  he  has  said  an  intimate  word  to  a 
white  woman.  The  attitude  which  prompts 
a  spirited  defense  of  such  barbarity  will  have 
to  be  removed  from  the  United  States  before 
this  country  can  pretend  to  civilization.  One 
effective  means  of  removing  it  is  to  show  it 

25 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

as  a  corollary  of  class  exploitation  of  the 
Negro. 

Garner 1  tells  of  the  emigration  which  was 
urged  by  Confederate  leaders,  among  them 
Gen.  Sterling  Price,  who  wrote  from  Mexico 
in  December,  1865,  "I  pray  to  God  that  my 
fears  for  the  future  of  the  South  may  never 
be  realized,  but  when  the  right  is  given  to  the 
Negro  to  bring  suit,  testify  before  the  courts, 
and  vote  in  elections,  you  all  had  better  be 
in  Mexico." 

The  objection  is  to  the  Negro's  being 
accorded  "political  and  civil  rights." 

"As  soon  as  it  became  evident,"  says 
Garner,  "that  free  Negro  labor  could  be 
made  profitable,  and  that  the  admission  of 
the  Negro  to  the  witness-stand  and  the  jury- 
box  would  not  be  accompanied  by  the  terrible 
results  predicted,  the  emigration  movement 
died  out  entirely." 

If  there  was  reason  for  saying  that  the 
emigration  movement  was  a  "delusion  gotten 
up  for  the  benefit  of  speculators,"  fortified 
by  a  fear  that  free  Negro  labor  could  not  be 
made  "profitable,"  there  is  every  reason  now 
for  believing  that  race  antagonisms  are  fo- 
.mented  by  those  who  exploit  the  Negro. 

1  Op.  tit.,  p.  134. 
26 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

"The  refusal  of  the  legislature,"  says  Gar 
ner,  "to  accord  the  Negro  civil  and  political 
rights  was,  of  course,  due  to  prejudices  and 
traditions  which  constituted  a  part  of  the 
very  fabric  of  Southern  society,  and  the  sud 
den  banishment  of  which  was  not  an  easy 
task." 

Any  society  which  profits  from  the  labor 
of  its  members,  denies  them  social  privileges 
like  education,  proper  sanitation,  and  decent 
housing,  and  denies  civil  prerogatives  such 
as  legal  redress,  may  be  said  to  be  founded 
upon  exploitation  of  those  individuals.  The 
reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education 
and  the  mortality  rates  for  Negroes  are  a 
commentary  on  the  attention  given  the  race 
as  a  group  in  the  Southern  states.  To  allow 
any  man  to  work  and  produce  and  not  to 
accord  him  the  benefits  and  the  protection 
of  the  society  which  he  makes  possible  is  a 
crude  form  of  exploitation  which,  as  regards 
the  Negro,  is  still  the  rule  rather  than  the 
exception. 

W.  D.  Weatherford 1  has  made  quite  clear 
the  realization  of  a  few  progressive  Southern 
white  men  that  "if  the  Negro  race  is  dying 

1 W.  D.  Weatherford,  Present  Forces  in  Negro  Progress,  1912,  pp. 
73-74.     New  York:  Association  Press. 

27 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

rapidly,  the  white  man  is  responsible.  I 
mean,"  he  explains,  emphatically,  "in  the 
country  we  give  him  so  little  training  in  the 
laws  of  hygiene  that  he  does  not  know  the 
art  of  self-preservation.  I  mean  that  we 
allow  city  landlords  to  build  abominable 
huts  in  which  the  Negro  has  to  live.  We  allow 
the  streets  in  the  section  where  he  lives — 
even  though  within  the  city  limits— to  go 
without  drainage,  sewerage,  paving,  or  even 
garbage  service.  We  allow  practices  which 
no  self-respecting  community  ought  to  allow, 
and  all  these  things  result  in  indifference, 
immorality,  physical  inability,  and  death  for 
the  Negro — and  we  are  his  murderers.  .  .  . 
The  truth  is  that  in  our  day  the  criminal 
most  to  be  feared  is  not  the  red-handed  mur 
derer  or  the  pad-footed  robber,  but  the  men 
who,  clothed  in  all  their  high  respectability, 
sit  in  their  fine  offices  and  smile,  while  poor 
devils  all  around  them  are  dying  for  wrant 
of  protection  from  the  greed  of  the  money 
shark,  the  lust  of  the  landlord,  and  the 
chicanery  of  the  cheap  politician." 

The  exploitation  of  the  Negro  in  the  United 
States  is  a  procedure  in  which  Northern  and 
Southern  white  men  have  been  jointly  con 
cerned.  Every  time  a  colored  man  is  lynched 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

or  burned  at  stake,  the  entire  nation  partic 
ipates  through  the  press.  Its  indifference  is 
in  reality  active  tolerance.  "Only  a  Negro," 
when  it  is  applied  to  lynching,  deadens  spon 
taneous  protest  when  the  landlord  terrorizes 
the  Negro  farm  tenant  or  drives  Negro  labor, 
or  when  the  white  labor-unionist  discrimi 
nates  against  the  colored  workman.  "Only 
a  Negro"  becomes  the  excuse,  the  justifica 
tion  for  every  sort  of  injustice  and  oppression. 
Undertaken  by  individuals  and  groups  of 
the  community  for  their  own  gains,  the  ex 
ploitation  is  justified  socially,  tolerated  by 
the  community  and  the  state,  erected  finally 
into  a  dogma  which,  when  it  is  not  upheld 
and  defended,  becomes  a  commonplace. 
Where  there  is  not  actual  slavery  in  the  form 
of  terrorism,  social  discrimination,  and  absence 
of  the  flimsiest  pretense  at  justice,  it  is  poten 
tial  in  the  indifference  which  prevails  with 
regard  to  those  practices.  Freedom  consists 
not  in  a  law  abolishing  slavery.  It  consists 
in  passionate  and  determined  affirmation  of 
the  value  of  human  lives  as  against  the  dis 
position  to  exploit  human  beings.  It  is  as 
absurd  to  justify  wretched  housing  for  the 
Negro  by  saying  that  better  housing  means 
race  amalgamation  as  it  is  to  repeat  the 

29 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

unverified  and  unverifiable  gossip  about  "race 
inferiority"  which  was  used  to  oppose  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  Civil  War  days.  Any 
group  which  desires  material  advantage  from 
the  exploitation  of  another  group  always 
takes  pains  to  characterize  its  victims  as 
inferior.  There  have  been  times  when  Eng 
lishmen  were  as  assured  of  the  inferiority  of 
the  Irish,  as  many  a  white  man  now  is  about 
the  "nigger."  The  Turk  is  doubtless  con 
vinced  of  the  inferiority  of  the  Armenian; 
the  Magyar  and  the  Czech,  the  Rumanian 
and  the  Magyar,  the  Polish  noble  and 
the  Jew,  all  furnish  examples  of  oppres 
sion  justified  by  spurious  "inferiorities." 
Under  cover  of  these  appeals  to  contempt 
and  passion  the  human  relations  which 
make  civilization  possible  are  ruthlessly 
violated. 

The  United  States  has  been  paying  the 
price  for  its  misinformation  about  race  rela 
tions  and  its  indifference  to  the  administra 
tion  of  those  relations.  It  is  not  race  riot 
so  much  as  the  spirit  which  is  given  rein  and 
perpetuated  in  mob  violence  that  is  destruc 
tive  of  civilization.  For  every  riot  which 
has  occurred  in  consequence  of  the  fomenting 

of  race  hatred  half  a  dozen  have  smoldered, 

so 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

ready  to  burst  into  conflagrations  that  would 
have  consumed  hundreds  of  lives.  Many 
American  cities  have  had  all  the  elements 
provocative  of  race  riot  except  the  accident 
that  brings  about  armed  conflict.  North 
and  South  may  be  divided  by  a  difference 
in  the  intensity  of  feeling  on  race  matters  of 
their  white  and  colored  citizens,  not  by  the 
incidence  of  riot. 

It  is  asserted  on  the  one  hand  that  what 
creates  race  problems  in  the  South  is  the 
Negro's  absolute  inferiority;  on  the  other 
that  race  problems  arise  not  by  reason  of  the 
Negro's  inherent  character,  but  only  where 
he  is  numerous.  In  fact,  economic  conditions 
play  their  part,  and  the  consequence  of  eco 
nomic  conflict  is  to  attach  to  racial  distinction 
what  does  not  properly  belong  to  it.  Thus, 
Phillips  quotes  John  Adams  as  having  written 
in  1795: 

"Argument  might  have  [had]  some  weight 
in  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Massachusetts, 
but  the  real  cause  was  the  multiplication  of 
laboring  white  people,  who  would  no  longer 
suffer  the  rich  to  employ  these  sable  rivals 
so  much  to  their  injury.  ...  If  the  gentlemen 
had  been  permitted  by  law  to  hold  slaves, 
the  common  white  people  would  have  put 

31 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

the  Negroes  to  death,  and  their  masters,  too, 
perhaps."  1 

The  issue  in  Massachusetts,  if  we  are  to 
accept  John  Adams's  statement,  was  not  the 
rights  of  man  or  any  ethical  consideration, 
nor  was  it  the  inferiority  or  superiority  of  the 
black  workman,  his  physical  or  other  char 
acteristics.  It  was,  just  as  it  was  during  the 
steel  strike  late  in  1919,  a  question  of  the 
use  by  employers  of  one  group  of  working- 
people  to  undercut  the  wages  of  another 
group.  Disturbances  such  as  occurred  at 
the  steel-plants  were  called  race  riots  because 
the  participants  happened  to  differ  in  color. 
This,  as  will  be  developed  in  subsequent 
chapters,  has  often  been  the  case.  The  ex 
pression  of  industrial,  social,  political  conflict 
in  "race  riot"  is  only  a  crude  demonstration 
of  the  fact  that  race  hatred  is  a  convenient 
and  much-abused  term  used  to  describe  desires 
far  less  unconscious  and  less  defensible  than 
race  hatred  is  supposed  to  be. 

What  the  course  will  be  of  race  relations 
in  the  United  States  it  would  be  hazardous 
to  venture  to  predict.  It  can  be  said  only 
that  the  information  upon  which  most  per- 

1  Ulrioh  Bonncll   Phillips,  American  Negro  Slavery,  1918.      New 
York:  D.  Applelon  &  Co.,  p.  119. 

32 


THE  BLIND  SPOT 

sons  form  their  judgments  is  inaccurate; 
that  the  forces  which  make  for  improved 
race  relations  have  for  the  most  part  derived 
their  support  from  a  small  number  of  individ 
uals;  and  that  almost  every  national  social 
power,  from  the  press  to  the  United  States 
army,  including  such  agents  of  the  state 
as  the  Department  of  Justice,  the  House  of 
Representatives,  and  the  Senate,  contrives 
increasingly  to  becloud  the  issues  under 
lying  race  conflict  and  to  embitter  feeling. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Negro's  new  impor 
tance  to  Northern  industry,  even  as  a  weapon 
against  white  labor-unionism,  will  force  white 
unionists,  once  they  realize  the  folly  of  per 
petuating  the  Negro  workers'  enmity,  to 
accept  him  as  one  of  themselves.  In  that 
event  race  relations  will  more  obviously 
go  into  the  phase  of  class  conflict,  in  which 
economic  position  rather  than  race  will  de 
termine  men's  attitudes.  Meanwhile  the 
point  at  which  to  arrest  wasteful,  violence- 
breeding  conceptions  is  in  childhood.  To 
children  prejudices  are  foreign  and  alien 
until  they  absorb  them  from  parent  or 
teacher.  If  ostracism  were  as  swift  and  as 
certain  for  the  white  man  who  says  what  is 
demonstrably  false  about  the  Negro  as  for 

3  33 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

the  man  who  upholds  the  Negro's  claims 
to  citizenship,  the  vexing  and  vexed  "race 
problem"  would  soon  cease  to  complicate 
every  plan  and  activity  of  United  State? 
citizens. 


II 

WHY   RACE   RIOTS? 

A  PERSPECTIVE  of  recent  American 
•**•  history  reveals  armed  conflicts  between 
white  men  and  black,  like  beacon  fires,  serv 
ing  as  illuminants  and  as  warnings.  The 
summer  and  early  fall  of  1919  especially  were 
distinguished  by  outbreaks  which  seemed  to 
many  a  portent  of  race  war  to  come.  In 
June  bloody  conflict  raged  in  Longview, 
Texas,  bursts  of  fire  spat  from  houses  in 
which  colored  men  defended  themselves  from 
a  white  mob — only  to  have  the  houses  later 
burned  to  the  ground.  In  the  same  month 
the  national  capital  became  for  three  days 
the  stamping-ground  of  rioters  who  were 
massed  and  did  their  will  in  the  streets  about 
the  government  buildings.  The  Negro  resi 
dence  district  was  made  a  zone  which  white 
men  entered  at  their  peril.  Chicago,  Knox- 
ville,  Omaha,  Charleston,  Elaine — the  roster 
of  names  is  monotonously  long;  the  casualty 

35 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

lists  startling.  Each  disaster  in  which  hate 
found  a  vent  and  more  hate  was  born  came 
upon  all  the  country,  except  the  community 
which  suffered,  as  a  strange  and  terrible 
phenomenon — so  terrible  a  commentary  on 
our  civilization  as  to  be  forgotten  almost  as 
soon  as  it  was  past.  Vaguely,  it  was 
attributed  to  Negro  criminality,  the  quick 
spread  of  a  brawl,  or  to  "race  hatred." 
Southern  editors  jibed  at  Northern  cities, 
and  the  North  became  aware  of  a  "national 
problem."  Awareness  of  that  problem  was 
intensified  not  so  much  by  reason  of  the 
persons  who  died  or  were  maimed  as  by  the 
hatred  displayed.  It  overran  civil  govern 
ment  and  released  primitive  impulses  in  acts 
more  bestial  than  the  best  or  worst  of  savagery. 
Cynics  as  to  democratic  processes  remark 
by  way  of  comment  that  in  the  cycle  of  his 
tory  the  crowd  that  howled  down  the  streets 
of  Rome  under  the  late  emperors  is  akin  to 
to-day's  mob — that  empire  let  blood  in  the 
circus,  and  now7  democracy  turns  its  streets 
into  a  Colosseum.  It  is  an  easy  way  of  dis 
posing  of  the  race  question  to  tell  the  indi 
vidual  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within 
him  and  that  governments  are  only  protean 
mobs.  In  its  counsel  of  despair,  it  parallels 

36 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

the  assertion  of  the  amateur  biologist  who 
insists  that  Negro  and  white  can  never  live 
peaceably  side  by  side.  Race  relations  must 
continue  a  hopeless  problem,  is  the  argument, 
for  there  is  an  "instinct"  of  race  hatred; 
when  a  man's  color  or  physiognomy  is  exceed 
ing  strange  to  you,  you  must  necessarily 
hate  him.  The  instinct  is  asserted  to  be  a 
counterpart  to  the  tendency  of  races  to  pro 
tect  their  "racial  integrity."  In  so  far  as 
American  race  riots  are  concerned,  the  "in 
stinct"  of  race  hatred  can  be  shown  to  be  a 
fiction.  The  evidence  from  the  race  riots 
themselves,  which  have  been  caused  by  every 
sort  of  industrial  and  political  conflict  utterly 
unconnected  with  race  relations,  is  borne 
out  by  the  testimony  of  anthropologists, 
especially  and  chiefly  Franz  Boas. 

Race  riots,  it  will  be  shown,  are  attributable 
to  nothing  so  simple  as  an  instinct  or  a 
tendency.  It  is  true  that  the  passion  which 
fighting-men  feel  is  individual,  but  the  deter 
minants  of  that  passion  are  environmental 
and  social  and  are  subject  to  control.  The 
South,  which  created  additional  problems 
for  the  War  Department  by  reason  of  its 
hostility  to  the  presence  and  the  training 
of  Negro  troops,  held  it  against  French 

37 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

people  that  they  welcomed  those  troops. 
That  is  a  commentary  on  the  relation  of 
environment  to  the  "instinct"  of  race  hatred. 
What  is  summarized  as  an  instinct  is  rather 
a  complex  of  the  forces  at  work  in  the  nation. 
Few  aspects  of  American  life,  industrial, 
political,  social,  but  are  in  some  way  contrib 
utory  to  the  spirit  which  finds  its  release 
in  mob  clashes.  Sometimes,  lurking  behind 
the  name  of  race  riot  is  discovered  the  plot 
ting  and  counter-plotting  of  factions  in  a 
city  government;  almost  always  the  evil 
spirit  of  propaganda;  frequently,  a  contest 
between  organized  labor  and  employer;  again, 
the  activities  of  real -estate  speculators.  If 
government  in  this  country  is  not  to  be  rele 
gated  to  hazardous  intervals  between  mob 
impacts,  the  stimulants  of  race  riots  deserve 
examination  and  analysis. 

The  background  for  race  riots  is  furnished 
by  what  might  be  called  the  "color  psychosis" 
of  the  South.  It  is  in  the  South  that  the 
problem  of  the  adjustment  of  white  and 
Negro  populations  has  been  rooted,  and  the 
South  suffers  from  a  chronic  illness  that  is  the 
consequence  of  the  attitude  of  most  Southern 
white  men  toward  the  Negro. 

"Is  the  Negro  out  of  politics  in  the  South?" 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

asked  Dr.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  some  years  ago. 
"Has  there  been  a  single  Southern  campaign 
in  the  last  twenty  years  in  which  the  Negro 
has  not  figured  as  the  prime  issue?"  The 
penalty  for  the  social  and  political  disabilities 
imposed  upon  the  Negro  has  been  that  he  is 
constantly  in  the  minds  of  white  people. 
From  contempt,  with  its  admixture  of  self- 
reproach,  to  hostility  is  a  short  step  and  an 
easy  one.  Hence  the  apprehension  with  which 
the  white  South  looked  upon  the  induction 
of  Negroes  into  the  army;  hence,  in  the  past, 
the  quick  resort  to  the  rope,  the  pistol,  the 
torch.  That  the  South  is  a  "white  man's 
country"  is  a  dogma  affirmed  in  practice 
not  only  oratorically  and  by  editors,  but  with 
bullets  and  whip.  It  is  expressed  in  lynch- 
ings  and  beatings,  until  the  spirit  of  the 
Negro  begins  to  change  and  he  buys  arms 
to  defend  himself.  Then  you  have  Long- 
view,  with  white  men  dead  and  Negro  resi 
dences  burned. 

The  Southern  dogma  colors  the  opinions 
of  the  rest  of  the  country.  Negroes'  houses 
were  bombed  in  Chicago  before  the  race 
riots  of  July,  1919.  It  is  true  that  the  influx 
of  Negroes  had  caused  real-estate  values  at 
first  to  become  depreciated.  But  the  bomb- 

39 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

ings  would  never  have  taken  place  if  the 
Negro  himself,  as  a  human  being,  had  not  been 
depreciated  in  the  esteem  of  his  neighbors 
by  a  hostile  propaganda.  Mr.  Carl  Sand 
burg1  remarked  that  the  Chicago  police  were 
inclined  to  believe  the  bombings  the  result 
rather  of  the  "clash  between  two  real-estate 
interests"  than  of  "race  feeling."  If  the 
diagnosis  was  correct  it  stands  as  another 
demonstration  of  the  play  of  other  motives 
on  the  relations  of  the  races. 

That  the  traditional  attitude  of  the  South 
has  not  been  without  effect  was  demonstrated 
in  the  Washington  riots  and  in  Omaha,  where 
the  mob  outburst  was  not  properly  a  race  riot 
at  all.  In  Washington,  a  propaganda  con 
ducted  by  several  powerful  newspapers,  play 
ing  upon  the  sex  antagonism  of  white  men  for 
black  and  accusing  Negroes  of  assaults  upon 
white  women,  inflamed  hoodlums.  In  Omaha 
a  similar  propaganda  undertaken  from  polit 
ical  motives  brought  about  the  lynching  of 
a  Negro  suspect,  the  wrecking  of  the  court 
house,  and  an  attempt  upon  the  life  of  the 
mayor.  The  propaganda  of  a  particular 
Western  newspaper  was  credited  by  the  chief 

lCarl    Sandburg,    The   Chicago   Race   Riots,    1919.      New   York 
Harcourt,  Brace  &  Howe. 

40 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

of  police,  the  Omaha  Ministerial  Union,  and 
indirectly  by  Ma j. -Gen.  Leonard  Wood  with 
contributing  to,  if  not  causing,  the  riot;  and 
it  was  established  in  court  that  the  man 
aging  editor  of  that  newspaper  had  been 
born  and  bred  in  the  South.  Reports  of 
both  Washington  and  Omaha  riots  sent  to 
Northern  newspapers  assumed  acquiescence 
in  the  Southern  doctrine  that  the  Negro  is  a 
rapist.  Given  the  background  of  belief  and 
superstition  about  the  Negro  which  emanates 
from  the  South,  it  is  not  difficult  to  foment 
antagonisms. 

Of  the  Chicago  riot  which  followed  hard 
upon  Washington,  no  one  even  hinted  that 
assaults  by  Negroes  were  a  cause.  As  Mr. 
Sandburg  pointed  out,  a  multiplicity  of  ele 
ments  brought  about  the  tension  which  burst 
into  violent  conflict.  But  the  main  deter 
minants  here  were  (1)  encroachments  of  mi 
grant  Negroes  from  the  South  upon  white 
residence  districts;  (2)  antagonism  to  non 
union  Negro  workmen  in  the  stockyards; 
(3)  hostility  arising  from  the  part  played  by 
the  Negro  vote  in  electing  an  unpopular  city 
administration.  No  insignificant  part  in  fo 
menting  race  hatred  in  Chicago  was  played 
by  the  Kenwood  and  Hyde  Park  Property 

41 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Owners'  Association.  Months,  even,  after  the 
riots,  in  which  thirty-eight  persons  were 
killed,  this  association  was  sending  out  appeals 
to  "every  white  person,  property -owner  in 
Hyde  Park"  to  "protect  your  property." 
"Shall  we  sacrifice  our  property  for  a  third 
of  its  value  and  run  like  rats  from  a  burning 
ship,"  said  a  notice,  "or  shall  we  put  up  a 
united  front  and  keep  Hyde  Park  desirable 
for  ourselves?"  And  a  letter  sent  out  at 
the  same  time  said,  "We  are  a  red-blood 
organization  who  say  openly,  we  won't  be 
driven  out."  It  is  worthy  of  mention  here 
that  of  two  white  men  arrested  in  Chicago 
charged  with  bombing  houses  of  Negroes 
and  granted  several  extensions  in  court,  one 
was  a  clerk  in  a  real-estate  concern.  So 
obviously  a  cause  of  the  Chicago  violence 
was  the  antagonism  to  the  expansion  of  the 
Negro  residence  district  by  migrants  from 
the  South,  that  the  coroner  proposed  volun 
tary  segregation  of  the  races  in  his  report  on 
the  riots. 

Although  municipal  politics  played  their 
part  in  Chicago,  the  Omaha  riot  was  most 
definitely  and  clearly  inspired  by  antagonists 
of  the  city  administration.  Months  before 
the  lynching  of  William  Brown,  the  local 

42 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

branch  of  the  National  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Colored  People  publicly 
called  attention  to  the  danger  of  the  cam 
paign  conducted  by  this  Western  newspaper 
under  its  Southern  editor.  Every  possible 
change  was  rung  upon  police  inefficiency, 
and  a  main  item  in  the  campaign  were  alarmist 
reports  of  unpunished  attacks  of  Negroes 
upon  white  women.  The  chief  of  police  of 
Omaha,  in  a  public  statement,  spoke  of  the 
"direct  cause  of  riot"  as  being  "the  crystal 
lization  of  mob  spirit  by  vicious,  unprincipled, 
and  false  newspaper  criticisms  of  the  police 
department."  He  added  that  the  lynching 
party  which  stormed  the  jail  "was  quickly 
joined  by  a  large  number  of  local  gamblers, 
bootleggers,  auto  thieves,  and  other  criminals, 
brought  to  the  scene  of  the  riot  in  taxis, 
furnished  with  liquor,  and  urged  to  acts  of 
lawlessness  of  every  description  by  the  'gang/ 
in  hope  that  the  present  city  administration 
(note  that  they  tried  to  hang  the  mayor) 
might  be  overthrown  and  handed  over  to  their 
organization."  "If  the  police  administration 
is  impotent  to  do  its  work,"  he  asks  later, 
"why  have  those  who  live  on  the  vices  of 
unfortunate  women  been  so  active  in  opposing 
the  police  department?" 

43 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Major-General  Wood,  who  was  put  in 
command  of  the  federal  troops  called  to 
Omaha,  remarked,  pointedly:  "One  of  the  first 
steps  toward  the  preservation  of  law  and 
order  should  be  the  suppression  of  a  rotten 
press,  where  there  is  one.  I  am  strong  for  the 
freedom  of  the  press  where  it  is  honest  and 
fearless,  gives  facts  and  not  lies.  Free  speech, 
yes,  but  not  free  treason."  And  on  another 
occasion  General  Wood  said,  "With  the  ex 
ception  of  a  few  men  and  one  paper,  you  have 
a  good  city." 

Into  the  question  whether  the  Omaha 
police  department  was  or  was  not  inefficient 
it  is  not  at  present  necessary  to  go  further 
than  to  say  that  the  Omaha  grand  jury  com 
mented  adversely  on  the  conduct  of  the  police 
forces  during  the  strike.  In  any  case,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  Omaha  lynching  and  of  the 
riot  which  was  diverted  into  attacks  on 
unoffending  colored  men  going  about  their 
business  in  the  streets,  was  an  embittered 
political  controversy,  having  no  connection 
with  race  and  race  hatred.  Race  hatred 
supplied  the  pretext  upon  which  the  political 
contest  was  brought  violently  to  a  focus. 

The  part  played  by  the  Western  newspaper 
and  the  Southern  newspapers  in  fanning  pas- 

44 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

sion  to  a  dangerous  point  recalls  Atlanta, 
and  the  newspaper  which,  according  to  Prof. 
Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  "by  its  lurid  state 
ment  of  facts,  large  admixture  of  lies,  and  use 
of  ferocious  head-lines,  was  one  of  the  chief 
agents  in  bringing  about  the  Atlanta  riots 
of  1907."  1 

Once  conceded  that  the  Negro  may  be  a 
decisive  element  in  local  politics — Chicago's 
second  ward,  chiefly  colored,  having  deter 
mined  the  election  of  Mayor  Thompson — 
it  is  obvious  that  feeling  with  regard  to  the 
Negro  will  be  played  upon  by  the  press. 
Unfortunately,  even  the  routine  of  the  press 
associations  and  of  the  important  dailies 
gives  an  alarmist  tinge  to  news  accounts 
concerning  the  Negro.  It  is  a  commonplace 
that  his  crimes  and  not  his  achievements 
are  reported.  Dean  Pickens,  of  Morgan  Col 
lege,  has  made  the  point  that  if  the  complexion 
of  red-haired  men  were  invariably  mentioned 
in  head-lines  in  connection  with  crimes  they 
committed,  small  boys  would  run  from  the 
red-haired  as  though  from  a  nightmare.  The 
presumption  in  the  wrhite  press  is  almost 
invariably  against  the  Negro.  When  feeling 
becomes  tense,  as  it  was  in  Washington  or 

1  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  The  Southern  South,  p.  70. 
45 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Chicago,  even  a  slight  exaggeration  in  the  re 
ports  of  crimes  committed  by  Negroes,  an 
increased  emphasis  upon  the  race  of  the 
offender,  at  once  attracts  attention.  A  de 
liberate  newspaper  campaign  to  discredit  the 
Negro  cannot,  under  the  circumstances,  fail 
of  dangerous  success.  Every  such  campaign 
is  caught  up  and  finds  its  echo  in  the  colored 
and  the  white  press  throughout  the  country. 

What  is  known  as  "tension"-— a  state  of 
the  public  mind  among  colored  and  white 
people  distinctly  perceptible,  but  not  easily 
described — increased  at  the  time  of  the  riots 
in  other  cities  than  the  riot  centers.  If 
there  had  been  a  disposition  to  bring  about  a 
clash  between  colored  and  white  people,  in 
New  York  City,  let  us  say,  the  best  time  for  the 
attempt  would  have  been  immediately  after 
the  Chicago  troubles,  early  in  August,  1919. 

A  third  determinant  of  race  riots,  besides 
political  intrigue  and  the  allied  arts  of  the 
press,  is  the  conflict  between  white  union 
labor  and  unorganized  Negroes.  This  was 
made  clear  in  Chicago  also,  where  the  return 
of  Negro  workers  to  the  stockyards  had  to 
be  delayed  after  the  riots  had  been  stilled, 
because  of  the  hostility  of  white  workers. 
In  fact,  for  months  after  the  riots  small 

46 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

racial  disturbances  did  occur.  Officers  of  the 
Stockyards  Labor  Council  have  denied  har 
boring  hostility  to  the  Negro  as  Negro,  and 
said  they  objected  only  to  the  presence  of 
non-union  men,  Negro  or  white.  In  point  of 
fact,  the  Negro  has  been  and  still  is  distrust 
ful  of  unions.  Too  often  he  has  had  to  go 
on  strike  only  to  find,  when  the  time  of 
settlement  came,  that  the  position  he  had  left 
at  the  behest  of  his  white  comrades  was 
filled  by  a  white  unionist.  Throughout  the 
South  few  Negroes  are  organized,  and  the 
Negro  migrant  carried  his  distrust  of  unions 
north  with  him. 

The  entrance  of  some  50,000  Negroes  into 
Chicago  industry,  then,  was  of  itself  enough 
to  create  tension.  A  careful  estimate  by  the 
National  League  on  Urban  Conditions  Among 
Negroes  of  the  number  placed  there  since  the 
migration  gave  40,000  men  arid  12,000  women. 
Thus,  in  the  fall  of  1919  the  stockyards  were 
employing  some  8,000  Negroes;  the  Corn 
Products  Refining  Company  had  increased 
the  number  of  the  Negro  employees  from  30 
to  800  in  a  year,  and  various  foundries  and 
car  companies  each  employed  from  200  to  500 
Negroes.  Numbers  of  establishments,  accord 
ing  to  the  Urban  League,  endeavored  to 

47 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

maintain  a  ratio  among  their  employees  of 
three  whites  to  one  Negro,  whereas  the  ratio 
of  Negroes  to  the  population  was  as  one  to 
thirty.  In  consequence  many  of  those  estab 
lishments  ran  foul  of  white  unions  and  the 
Negro  became  a  victim  of  the  resulting 
hostility.  During  the  steel  strike  numbers 
of  Negroes  were  "imported,"  as  immigrants 
used  to  be  induced  to  come  to  our  industrial 
centers  to  underbid  union  labor.  In  Pitts 
burgh  it  was  estimated  that  12,000  Negroes 
had  been  added  to  the  labor  supply.  A 
story  is  told  of  the  introduction  of  Negroes 
during  the  steel  strike  in  one  plant  where 
they  had  not  previously  manned  blast-fur 
naces.  Confronted  with  the  danger  that  the 
fires  would  go  out,  an  officer  of  the  company 
went  to  a  Negro  boarding-house  and  asked 
for  twenty-five  volunteers  who  thought  they 
could  operate  the  furnaces.  He  obtained  the 
men,  who  were  concealed  in  an  engine-tender 
and  driven  to  the  mill.  They  kept  the  blast 
furnaces  going.  Had  the  union  enlisted  their 
loyalty  as  the  company  was  able  to,  the 
Negroes  could  not  have  been  made  an  instru 
ment  for  strike-breaking.  For  the  Negro 
is  no  more  a  strike-breaker  by  nature  than 
is  the  Czccho-SIovak  or  the  Ukrainian. 

'48 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

Of  late,  as  the  industrial  struggle  has  cen 
tered  not  so  much  about  wages  as  about  the 
right  to  organize  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
closed  shop,  inducements  offered  to  Negroes 
have  often  become  such  as  to  make  them  con 
tent  to  forgo  the  advantages  of  unionization. 
This  condition  played  its  part  in  Chicago  and 
was  accountable  for  the  fury  of  the  Irish- 
American  stockyard  workers  adjacent  to  Chi 
cago's  "black  belt."  In  this  respect  the 
Chicago  riots  resembled  in  type  the  East 
St.  Louis  massacre  of  1917.  Here,  where 
six  thousand  Negroes  were  driven  from  their 
homes,  and  several  hundred  were  hanged, 
shot,  burned,  or  beaten,  the  importation  by 
packing  companies  and  other  establishments 
of  Negro  strike-breakers  directly  contributed 
to  the  disaster.  At  the  end  of  May,  1917, 
something  over  a  month  before  the  holocaust 
burst  upon  East  St.  Louis,  six  hundred  union 
men,  including  striking  employees  of  the 
Aluminum  Ore  Company,  marched  to  the 
city  hall  to  appeal  against  the  importation 
of  more  Negroes,  and  these  men  were  advised 
by  the  leaders,  according  to  a  correspondent 
of  The  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  "that  in 
case  the  authorities  took  no  action  they 
should  resort  to  mob  law."  The  call  to  a 

4  49 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

meeting  sent  out  by  the  Central  Trades  and 
Labor  Union  had  spoken  of  the  "influx  of 
undesirable  Negroes"  and  had  said,  "These 
men  are  being  used  to  the  detriment  of  our 
white  citizens  by  some  of  the  capitalists 
and  a  few  of  the  real-estate  owners."  Of  the 
sickening  horrors  that  occurred  during  the 
massacres  of  East  St.  Louis  it  is  unnecessary 
to  speak,  except  to  point  out  that  the  display 
of  hatred  and  passion  had  its  root  in  an 
industrial  problem. 

A  very  different  set  of  industrial  circum 
stances  brought  about  the  riots  in  Phillips 
County,  Arkansas,  in  which  some  five  white 
men  and  upward  of  twenty-five  (some  say 
more  than  one,  hundred)  Negroes  were  killed. 
The  Phillips  County  riots  were  widely  heralded 
as  the  result  of  a  "plot"  on  the  part  of 
Negroes  to  "massacre  whites"  and  take  over 
their  land.  Leadership  in  the  "Negro  insur 
rection"  was  variously  attributed  to  Robert 
Hill,  a  Negro,  to  O.  S.  Bratton,  a  white  man 
arrested  on  a  charge  of  murder  and  subse 
quently  released  on  his  own  recognizance 
under  a  purely  formal  indictment  for  "bar 
ratry"  or  fomenting  litigation,  and  to  "The 
Progressive  Farmers  and  Household  Union  of 
America,"  an  organization  of  Negro  farmers  of 

50 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

Phillips  County,  Arkansas.  Alarmist  reports 
that  fifty  thousand  rounds  of  ammunition  had 
been  found  at  a  Negro  school  were  later,  less 
conspicuously,  corrected  when  the  principal 
explained  they  had  been  sent  there  for  the 
military  training  of  the  students  and  had  no 
connection  whatever  with  the  "insurrection." 
Investigation  disclosed  that  the  price  of  cotton 
and  the  farm-tenant  system  characteristic 
not  only  of  Phillips  County,  Arkansas,  but  of 
the  entire  Southern  cotton  belt,  had  played  an 
important  part  in  the  Phillips  County  trou 
bles.  The  conduct  of  the  proceedings  against 
the  accused  Negro  farm  tenants  bore  out 
charges  of  oppression.  Although  feeling  in 
Phillips  County  was  such  that  no  fair  trial 
could  possibly  have  been  held  there,  they  were 
tried  and  convicted  by  a  jury  from  wrhich 
Negroes  had  been  excluded.  A  dozen  Negroes 
were  sentenced  to  be  electrocuted  and  more 
than  sixty  to  terms  of  from  one  to  twenty-one 
years  in  prison.  As  against  these  sentences 
it  will  be  recalled  that  many  more  Negroes, 
at  least  five  Negroes  for  every  white  man, 
had  been  killed  in  the  riots.  The  situation 
was  given  an  entirely  different  color  from  the 
atmosphere  of  "massacre"  and  "insurrection" 
created  by  the  press  when  U.  S.  Bratton, 

51 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

white  native  of  Arkansas  and  member  of  a 
law  firm  of  Little  Rock,  published  his  state 
ment.  He  asserted  that  settlements,  state 
ments  of  their  accounts,  had  been  denied  to 
the  Negro  tenants,  who  invariably  found 
themselves  in  debt  to  their  landlords  at  the 
end  of  the  year;  that  a  debt  system,  amount 
ing  virtually  to  peonage,  had  led  the  Negroes 
to  organize  and  employ  a  lawyer  to  obtain 
legal  redress;  and  that  the  riots  as  well  as 
the  court  proceedings  were  designed  to  ter 
rorize  the  Negro  farm  tenants  out  of  asking 
for  what  was  their  due. 

Mr.  Bratton  had  been  an  Assistant  United 
States  Attorney  and  had  vigorously  prosecuted 
cases  of  peonage  in  that  part  of  the  state  of 
Arkansas.  This  summary  of  the  clashes  about 
Elaine,  Arkansas,  is  necessarily  brief.  It  will 
be  amplified  later.  But  the  bare  facts  suffi 
ciently  indicate  that  despite  all  romantic 
accounts  of  "Negro  Paul  Reveres"  and  their 
"night  riding" — an  absurdity  to  any  one 
who  knows  the  conditions  in  Arkansas  and 
in  the  cotton-raising  South — the  price  of 
cotton,  land  tenure,  the  system  of  plantation 
stores — all  played  their  part  in  bringing  on 
the  Arkansas  riots. 

It  will  be  seen  that  powerful  social  and 

52 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

economic  motives  were  operative  in  Chicago, 
Omaha,  East  St.  Louis,  Arkansas,  Washing 
ton.  It  is  to  be  assumed  that  riots  so  varied 
in  their  character  suggest  the  variety  of 
motive  that  plays  about  race  antagonism. 
And  yet  the  thought  that  arises,  frequently 
unspoken,  to  people's  minds  in  connection 
with  race  disturbances  is  sex.  The  riots  in 
Washington  were  universally  attributed  to 
"many  attacks  upon  white  women"  by 
Negroes;  the  victim  of  the  Omaha  mob, 
which  then  tried  to  hang  the  mayor,  was  a 
Negro  accused  of  assault  upon  a  white  woman; 
the  storming  of  the  jail  in  Knoxville,  pre 
ceding  as  it  did  general  pillage  and  hood- 
lumism,  had  for  its  pretext  the  determination 
to  lynch  Maurice  Mays,  a  Negro  accused  of 
assault.  Of  all  preconceptions  the  one  which 
fastens  sexual  crime  to  Negroes  and  unfail 
ingly  reverts  to  it  in  time  of  race  conflict 
is  most  difficult  to  dispose  of.  The  ground 
of  misinformation  is  so  firmly  laid  by  a  press 
whose  campaign  is  based  upon  it  that  there 
is  no  hope  of  reaching  newspaper  readers 
with  the  facts.  In  effect,  the  mob  spirit 
excited  by  news  of  sexual  crime  differs  in  no 
essential  from  the  mobbism  which  finds  ex 
pression  in  public  hangings  and  burnings 

53 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

at  stake  in  the  Southern  states.  The  public 
attitude  toward  race  conflicts  is  deeply  affected 
by  the  constant  assertions  of  Southerners 
that  lynching  occurs  for  "one  crime  and  one 
crime  only";  so  much  so  that  it  is  found 
expedient,  where  a  Negro  man  and  a  white 
woman  have  transgressed  the  Southern  code, 
and  the  Negro  has  paid  for  it  with  his  life, 
to  accuse  the  Negro  of  having  committed 
assault.  The  fact  remains  that,  despite  the 
propaganda  which  justifies  mob  murder  of 
Negroes  on  the  ground  of  the  protection  of 
white  womanhood,  sex  antagonism  was  not 
the  occasion  of  most  of  the  race  riots  in  this 
country.  Sex  jealousy  has  been  used  and 
exploited  to  foment  hatred.  Individual  mob- 
bists  have  undoubtedly  been  moved  by  the 
passion  of  sex  jealousy  fostered  not  only  by 
the  newspapers,  but  by  the  utterances  of 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  the  national 
Capitol.  To  that  extent  the  motives  of  the 
individual  and  of  groups  of  the  population 
may  be  roused,  stimulated,  used  in  the  plans 
and  purposes  of  political  or  business  or  labor 
leaders.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  advert 
to  the  type  of  agitation  conducted  by  a  well- 
known  Southern  ex-Senator.  Professor  Hart 
has  spoken  of  the  "genius  of  Benjamin  R. 

54 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

Tillman  in  discovering  that  there  are  more 
voters  of  the  lower  class  than  of  the  upper, 
and  that  he  who  can  get  the  lower  class  to 
vote  together  may  always  be  re-elected." 
Although,  Professor  Hart  added,  Tillman 
came  of  a  respectable  middle-class  family, 
yet  it  was  his  part  "to  show  himself  the 
coarsest  and  most  vituperative  of  poor  whites." 
It  is  a  type  of  leadership  still  prevalent, 
still  vocal  in  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  still  effective  in  newspaper  offices 
and  from  the  platform  in  inflaming  men  to 
the  point  where  mob  conflict  between  the 
races  becomes  possible.  Its  theme  is  often 
social  equality,  and  great  pains  are  taken  to 
confuse  the  public  mind  by  identifying  social 
equality  with  race  mixture. 

If  the  white  man  is  deluded  by  the  talk 
about  sex  and  Negro  criminality,  the  Negro 
is  not.  Especially  clear  is  the  Negro  bour 
geoisie,  a  group  unknown  to  most  white  peo 
ple  because  it  is  part  of  what  Doctor  DuBois 
has  called  the  "group  economy"  of  race  in 
this  country.  "It  consists,"  said  Doctor 
DuBois,  "of  a  co-operative  arrangement  of 
industry  and  service  in  a  group  which  tends 
to  make  the  group  a  closed  economic  circle, 
largely  independent  of  surrounding  whites. 

55 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

.  .  .  The  Negro  lawyer  serves  almost  exclu 
sively  colored  clientage,  so  that  his  existence 
is  half  forgotten  by  the  white  world." 

A  rough  measure  of  the  present  power  and 
importance  of  the  Negro  bourgeoisie  is  in  the 
scope  of  its  financial  enterprises,  its  life- 
insurance  companies,  banking  institutions, 
lodges,  farms,  residences,  oil-wells.  There 
is  not  space  to  speak  of  Negro  colleges  and 
schools,  of  the  achievements  of  Negro  lawyers 
and  physicians  and  dentists,  many  of  whom 
enjoy  the  best  white  patronage.  The  exist 
ence  of  the  Negro  bourgeoisie,  however, 
should  be  borne  in  mind  as  a  determinant 
of  the  changed  status  of  the  Negro  in  the 
United  States  and  of  the  Negro's  changed 
attitude  toward  race  conflict.  With  the  ex 
ception  of  Arkansas,  where  the  rural  Negro 
was  more  or  less  at  the  mercy  of  the  better 
armed  and  better  organized  white  man,  recent 
race  riots  have  not  been  massacres.  The 
Negro  has  shot  to  kill,  to  defend  himself, 
and  in  a  number  of  cases  it  was  this  cir 
cumstance  as  much  as  the  activity  of  local 
police  or  the  intervention  of  troops  which 
put  an  end  to  disorder. 

It  would  be  exaggeration  to  ascribe  to  the 
war  the  development  of  the  "new  Negro." 

56 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

Fifty  years  of  such  progress  as  has  been 
accomplished  by  the  Negro  race  in  this 
country  were  bound  to  produce  more  and 
more  individuals  who  would  bitterly  resent 
the  disabilities  imposed  on  them  merely 
and  only  on  the  pretext  of  the  color  of  their 
skins  and  by  reason  of  the  blind  prejudices 
of  white  men.  Knowing,  as  Negroes  bitterly 
have  come  to  know,  that  vengeance  is  visited 
upon  those  of  their  race  who  advance  ma 
terially,  that  it  is  not  the  Negro  servant,  but 
the  Negro  landowner,  teacher,  physician, 
who  bears  the  brunt  of  race  prejudice,  that, 
in  short,  it  is  class  and  not  race  prejudice, 
that  poisons  race  relations,  Negroes  were 
bound  to  develop  race  consciousness.  This 
development  went  hand  in  hand  with  the 
economic  "group  economy"  which  Doctor 
DuBois  has  described.  If  the  white  press 
omits  essential  interpretations  of  race  phenom 
ena,  the  Negro  press  of  this  country  does  not. 
White  men  were  amazed  in  Civil  War  times 
at  the  rapid  dissemination  of  news  by  the 
"grapevine"  system  of  communication  among 
Negroes.  Now,  even  where  colored  men  are 
terrorized  out  of  distributing  or  buying  their 
newspapers  and  magazines,  such  as  The  Chicago 
Defender,  with  its  large  circulation,  The  Crisis, 

57 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

The  Messenger,  The  New  York  Age,  news 
spreads  from  those  who  do  succeed  in  obtain 
ing  and  reading  these  and  many  other  publica 
tions  of  the  race.  The  function  of  the  war, 
of  the  better  jobs,  higher  cotton  prices,  and 
opportunity  in  the  North  which  it  brought, 
was  not  to  create  Negro  leaders,  business 
men,  a  class  of  intelligent  and  responsible 
citizens.  They  had  come  into  being  before 
the  war.  They  represented  all  the  social 
stratification  of  a  highly  developed  capitalist 
state  with  their  own  means  of  communica 
tion,  of  finance,  and  instruments  of  industry. 
What  the  war  taught  Negroes  anew  was  that 
they  must  stand  together  on  the  basis  of 
color.  That  the  hard  reminders  had  had 
their  effect  was  demonstrated  in  the  race 
clashes  of  1919.  Substantial  Negroes,  who 
had  hoped  to  keep  aloof  from  the  inevitable 
clashes  of  hoodlums,  found  themselves  forced 
to  buy  rifles  and  ammunition.  They  found 
themselves  victimized  by  the  reports  given 
currency  by  politicians  like  Vardaman,  that 
"Frenchwomen-ruined  niggers"  were  coming 
back  to  this  country  from  France  to  make 
trouble  and  to  disturb  the  supremacy  of  the 
white  race.  More  than  one  such  Negro, 
with  business  responsibilities  and  a  family 

58 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

that  would  have  disposed  him  to  peace,  had 
peace  been  possible,  had  to  consider  fighting 
for  his  manhood,  not  with  the  ballot,  but 
\vith  the  gun.  That  Negroes  were  insulted 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  wore  the 
uniform  of  the  United  States  army,  when 
on  the  one  hand  they  were  being  taught  to 
value  democracy,  and  on  the  other  hand  were 
being  taught  to  fight,  could  not  fail  to  have 
its  effect  upon  the  attitude  of  the  Negro 
toward  the  white  mob. 

In  effect,  race  riots  represent  a  repudiation 
of  civilization  on  the  part  of  the  group  which 
initiates  and  tolerates  them,  as  preferable 
to  the  tolerance  on  terms  of  equality  of 
another  group  in  that  civilization.  So  long 
as  the  relations  of  Negro  and  white  man  in 
this  country  are  conceived  in  the  terms  of 
the  black  man's  encroachment  upon  the 
white  man's  sexual  preserve  there  will  be 
embittered  hostility  between  the  races.  When 
the  term  "social  equality"  is  divested  of  its 
special  significance  and  is  used  literally  to 
mean  equal  treatment  for  human  beings 
on  the  basis  of  their  common  humanity,  a 
long  step  will  have  been  taken  toward  the 
elimination  of  the  rope,  the  torch,  and  the 
gun  from  American  government.  When  that 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

new  use  of  the  term  "social  equality"  has 
been  initiated,  it  will  be  understood  that, 
as  Mr.  Walter  Lippmann  has  put  it,  we  can 
give  the  Negro  complete  access  to  all  the 
machinery  of  our  common  civilization  and 
"allow  him  to  live  so  that  no  Negro  need 
dream  of  a  white  heaven  and  of  bleached 
angels." 

For  the  present,  race  riots  and  armed 
watching  and  waiting  between  the  colored  and 
white  men  in  American  cities  show  the  soft 
and  the  rotten  spots  in  our  civilization. 
They  show  a  press  undisciplined  to  any  sense 
of  social  responsibility;  freedom  not  for  the 
social  inventor,  but  for  the  exploiter  who 
plays  his  own  tunes  on  passion;  dark  centers 
of  poverty  and  crime  which  become  the  source 
of  disorder  that  involves  the  best  of  both 
races  in  hostility  and  embittered  misunder 
standing. 

The  way  out  is  not  to  disarm  the  Negro 
and  subject  him  to  terrorism.  That  makes 
jailers  and  tyrants  of  white  Americans.  "They 
won't  sell  us  arms,  but  I  notice  they  still  sell 
us  kerosene,"  was  the  remark  of  one  colored 
man.  To  allow  a  race  to  advance  economi 
cally  and  socially,  even  against  such  obstacles 
as  have  confronted  the  Negro,  and  to  tell 

60 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

him  to  remain  a  hewer  of  wood  and  a  drawer 
of  water  is  not  only  to  run  counter  to  the 
American  tradition,  but  it  is  to  set  one's 
face  towrard  achieving  the  impossible. 

Race  riots  have  shown,  as  no  other  phenom 
enon  of  race  relations  in  the  United  States, 
the  complexity  and  variety  of  problems  that 
confront  democracy.  More  and  more  it  is 
coming  to  be  realized  that  the  Negro  is 
demanding  a  new  orientation  in  the  United 
States.  The  road  to  that  orientation  lies 
through  education,  improved  housing  and 
sanitation,  increased  opportunity.  To  per 
mit  the  manifestation  on  the  part  of  white 
men  of  distaste  or  hostility  to  a  colored  skin 
to  determine  the  approach  to  race  relations, 
or  to  permit  an  embittered  assertion  of  class 
superiority,  with  skin  pigmentation  as  its 
distinguishing  mark,  is  to  court  the  anarchy 
and  the  savagery  that  prevail  when  dark 
men  gather  armed  in  their  districts  to  repel 
the  white  mob  and  white  mobs  wander  the 
streets,  beating  to  insensibility  or  death  any 
colored  man  who  chances  to  be  in  their  way. 
More  than  any  agency  in  the  country  the 
press  can  contribute  to  the  elimination  of 
race  riots.  For  the  present,  local  government 
is  ineffective  to  prevent  armed  clashes.  Usu- 

61 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

ally,  when  that  stage  has  been  reached,  the 
assistance  of  the  federal  government  and  the 
intervention  of  either  state  or  federal  troops 
has  to  be  invoked.  Race  riots  are  the  con 
fession  of  democracy's  failure  to  deal  with 
one  of  the  main  problems  of  the  modern 
world — "the  color  line,"  the  relation  of  men 
of  widely  different  races.  Ultimately  the  prob 
lem  must  be  attacked  and  solved  within 
nations.  For  no  nation  is  a  homogeneous 
racial  entity.  The  discipline  of  tolerance 
will  be  found  a  necessary  step  in  the  mainte 
nance  of  international  relations.  To  permit 
the  enmities  of  the  races  of  the  world  to  be 
embodied  in  miniature  within  the  boundaries 
of  the  United  States  is  to  allow  a  menace  to 
grow  of  the  ruin  of  civilization  as  we  con 
ceive  it. 

It  should  be  said  of  the  present  tension, 
with  its  outbursts  of  race  conflicts,  that  it 
presents  encouraging  aspects.  The  Negro 
has  a  stake  in  American  civilization  and  he 
is  willing  to  fight  for  it.  Of  the  quality  of 
life  and  of  freedom  the  hard  lesson  is  being 
learned  more  deeply  by  the  Negro  than  by 
any  class  in  America.  Truly  for  many  Negroes 
life  and  freedom  are  a  daily  conquest.  The 
patience  and  determination  and  courage  which 


WHY  RACE  RIOTS? 

go  into  the  struggle  are  values  that  no  nation 
can  afford  to  spurn.  Something  of  respect 
for  an  adversary  who  stands  his  ground  is 
admixed  with  the  shame  and  regret  of  white 
communities,  like  Washington,  which  have 
tolerated  riot.  If  the  result  of  race  riots  is, 
as  some  observers  profess  to  see  it,  a  new 
standing  and  a  new  recognition  of  the  Negro, 
as  well  as  a  new  realization  and  race  pride 
on  the  part  of  Negroes  themselves,  the  price 
of  lives  lost  and  suffering  will  not  have  been 
exacted  altogether  in  vain. 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

^T^O  Europeans  and  to  many  Northerners 
the  attitude  of  the  Southerner  toward  the 
Negro  is  a  feast  of  unreason.  Why  will  a 
Southerner  of  caste  refer  affectionately  to  the 
colored  mammy  \vho  rocked  him  to  sleep  on 
her  bosom,  who  told  him  the  stories  that 
colored  the  dawning  of  the  world  upon  his 
mind?  Why  will  the  same  gentleman  regard 
it  as  an  insult  to  be  asked  to  ride  in  a  Pullman 
car  with  that  mammy's  son?  WTiy  must  the 
colored  boy,  who  has  played  with  little  white 
children,  pass  them  in  the  street  later  with 
scarcely  a  nod  of  recognition  from  them? 
Why  is  it  possible,  at  the  mere  mention  of 
"social  equality"  of  the  races,  to  rouse  such 
fury  among  Southern  white  people  that  many 
a  colored  man  has  paid  with  his  life  the 
unsupported  accusation  of  having  "preached" 
that  equality?  To  attempt  to  answer  these 
and  similar  questions  offhand  is  to  disregard 

64 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR,  PSYCHOSIS 

the  simple  fact  that  a  set  of  beliefs,  which  are 
emotionally  unified  and  harmonized  in  the 
person  who  holds  them,  often  seem  extrav 
agantly  incompatible  and  illogical  to  the 
critical  observer.  Unfortunately  for  the 
South,  as  well  as  for  the  nation,  the  conse 
quence  of  the  typical  attitude  toward  race 
relations  is  not  merely  an  effect  of  illogicality 
upon  the  observer.  The  effect  is  the  con 
tinuance  in  the  South  of  a  state  of  feeling 
closely  akin  to  the  hysteria  which  swept  the 
rest  of  the  nation  in  the  time  of  the  World 
War. 

The  Southern  white  man  puts  certain 
questions  beyond  the  bounds  of  discussion. 
If  they  are  pressed  he  will  fight  rather  than 
argue.  What  to  many  educated  and  culti 
vated  persons  of  the  North  seems  arguable 
and  debatable,  subject  to  critical  examina 
tion  and  referable  to  scientific  observation, 
to  the  Southern  white  man  is  as  sacred  as 
religious  dogma  and  is  defended  as  passion 
ately.  In  matters  of  social  and  political  con 
cern,  then,  many  Southern  white  men,  not 
excluding  Senators  and  editors  of  the  most 
powerful  newspapers,  act  upon  beliefs  as 
rigid  and  apparently  unalterable  as  those 
which  animated  the  hunters  of  schismatics 

5  65 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

and  heretics  in  the  early  Christian  Church  and 
during  the  Middle  Ages.  To  such  minds 
any  attempt  to  swerve  or  convince  them  is  a 
sort  of  treason;  differences  of  opinion,  like 
differences  in  faith,  are  subject  to  the  arbitra 
ment  of  force.  The  state  of  mind,  common 
as  it  is  to  all  classes,  with  whatever  exceptions 
every  class  affords,  determines,  within  the 
limits  of  the  federal  constitution,  the  laws  of 
Southern  states,  the  enforcement  of  those  laws, 
and  all  the  subtleties  of  human  relations 
which  are  not  reflected  in  court  cases.  The 
result  is  not  a  stable  human  society,  but  a 
balance  of  power.  Where  men  may  not  pub 
licly  express  dissent  unless  in  fear  of  ostracism, 
where  social  standing  and,  in  many  communi 
ties,  tolerable  existence  depend  upon  very 
definitely  prescribed  orthodoxy,  it  is  not  assent, 
but  power  that  determines  the  continuance 
of  a  social  and  industrial  system  based  on 
that  orthodoxy.  The  question  of  the  Negro's 
status  in  the  South  is  quite  generally  disposed 
of  by  the  assertion  that  the  South  is  a  "white 
man's  country"  and  must  remain  so.  The 
position  cannot  be  justified  on  grounds  of 
any  general  political  or  social  principles  ap 
plicable  to  human  beings  in  general,  without 
either  specifically  excepting  the  Negro  as  a 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

class  from  the  application  of  those  prin 
ciples  or  declaring  that  he  is  not  a  human 
being.  In  practice  both  expedients  are  re 
sorted  to. 

But  the  Negro,  where  he  acquires  economic 
power,  farms,  Liberty  bonds,  oil-wells,  thea 
ters,  education,  medical  and  legal  training, 
constantly  narrows  the  field  which  may  be 
interposed  between  himself  and  common 
humanity.  It  is  very  difficult  to  show  that 
the  man  is  not  a  human  being  wiio  can  ad 
minister  a  three-thousand-acre  farm;  wiio 
can  represent  the  United  States  as  consul— 
with  diplomatic  responsibilities — in  Latin 
America;  who  can  perform  difficult  and 
delicate  surgical  operations;  who  writes  poetry 
and  music,  conducts  banks  and  life-insurance 
companies.  When  this  denial  of  power  be 
comes  a  reductio  ad  absurdum  on  the  basis 
of  any  test  of  ability  or  aptitude  which  may 
be  advanced,  the  recourse  is  always  to  some 
thing  inherent  in  color.  Every  successful 
colored  man,  then,  becomes  living  disproof 
of  the  100-per-cent.  Southerner's  theorem. 

The  symptoms  of  the  South's  state  of  mind 
are  forms  of  repression  which  the  North  would 
resort  to  only  under  the  threat  of  war  and 
toward  enemies  or  those  believed  to  be 

67 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

sympathizing  with  and  aiding  the  enemy.1 
There  is  no  crime  so  heinous  that  it  puts  the 
offender  in  civilized  communities  outside  the 
field  of  court  procedure.  In  almost  all  coun 
tries  pretending  to  civilization  the  accused 
is  entitled,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  trial  to 
determine  if  he  be  guilty  or  not.  That  is  not 
the  case  in  many  portions  of  the  South. 
Public  men,  where  they  do  not  participate 
in  the  mob  murder  without  trial  of  colored 
men,  frequently  condone  or  approve  it.  It 
is  not  uncommon  for  a  newspaper  editorial 
to  urge  that  the  exponent  of  an  unpopular 
doctrine  be  "lynched."  Where  else  than  in 
the  Southern  states  of  the  United  States 
would  it  be  possible  to  remove  a  man  from  a 
railway  train  and  beat  him  within  an  inch 
of  his  life  because,  being  colored,  he  had 
dared  to  purchase  Pullman  accommodations 
for  his  two  daughters,  on  their  journey  to  a 
Southern  university  of  standing?  To  all 
questions  that  may  be  raised  as  to  the  pro 
priety  of  using  force  and  threats  of  it  in 
administering  race  relations,  the  reply  is 
that  by  that  means  they  are  "settled."  The 


1  This  statement  becomes  theoretical  since  the  hysterical  outburst 
of  radical  baiting'and  hunting  of  "Reds"  which  took  place  in  Northern 
cities  late  in  1919  and  curly  in  1920. 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

answer  leaves  much  to  be  desired.  The 
"settlement"  is  accompanied  by  serious  dis 
advantages.  Uneasy  lies  the  Southerner's 
head  whose  ascendancy,  like  the  king's,  de 
pends  upon  repression.  He  is  tied  to  a 
slavery  worse  almost  than  physical  enslave 
ment.  His  thoughts  and  preoccupations  are 
chained  to  color  and  the  problems  race 
relations  occasion.  In  commenting  upon  the 
riots  at  Vicksburg  in  1874,  Garner  speaks  of 
"the  dread  of  Negro  insurrection,  which 
has  at  one  time  or  another  darkened  every 
hearthstone  in  the  South";  rumors  of  upris 
ing,  massacre,  plotting  by  Negroes,  appeared 
in  many  newspapers  during  1919,  created 
intense  anxiety,  and  provoked  violent  counter- 
measures.  Agrarian  and  almost  entirely  eco 
nomic  as  the  origin  of  the  disturbances  in 
Arkansas  proved  to  have  been,  the  newspapers 
not  only  of  the  South,  but  throughout  the 
nation,  reflected  the  fear  of  revolt,  massacre, 
and  uprising  which  is  never  blotted  entirely 
out  of  the  mind  of  the  white  citizens  of  the 
South. 

Something  more  than  analogy  is  possible 
between  what  the  nation  had  to  believe  of 
the  individual  German  when  it  was  fighting 
Germany  and  what  the  South  habitually 

69 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

believes  of  the  Negro.  It  is  difficult  to 
generate  enough  enthusiasm  to  fight  a  man 
unless  you  hate  him;  and  it  is  difficult  to 
hate  him  unless  you  believe  him  better,  in 
some  respects,  than  yourself  and  are  jealous, 
or  conceive  him  utterly  unworthy  of  human 
consideration,  a  beast,  degenerate,  criminal. 
In  neither  case  are  you  in  a  position  to  discuss 
any  questions  which  may  be  raised  as  to  your 
relations  to  the  individual.  He  is  enemy, 
and  hate  or  contempt  is  justified  in  wreaking 
itself  upon  him  and  upon  his  protagonists. 
Many  Southerners  protest  they  have  intense 
and  sympathetic  affection  for  individual 
Negroes  such  as  is  not  found  elsewhere  in  the 
United  States.  That  may  or  may  not  be 
true  of  certain  individuals.  But  let  the 
Negro  insist,  not  upon  affectionate  condescen 
sion,  but  upon  his  full  prerogatives  as  a  man 
and  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  his 
most  devoted  Southern  friends  will  relegate 
him  to  the  position  the  "Hun"  occupied 
during  the  war. 

That  this  condition  of  the  public  mind  is 
due  not  to  something  inherent  in  race  there 
are  numerous  indications.  "No  people,"  says 
Bryce,  "was  ever  prouder  than  the  Romans, 
nor  with  better  reason.  Yet,  though  in  the 

70 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

fullness  of  their  strength  they  held  them 
selves  called  by  Fate  to  rule  the  world,  they 
showed  little  contempt  for  their  provincial 
subjects  and  no  racial  aversion."  1  In  the 
ancient  world,  dark  skin,  as  Bryce  points  out, 
excited  little  or  no  repulsion.  His  valuable 
survey  suggests  to  him  "that  down  till  the 
days  of  the  French  Revolution  there  had 
been  very  little  in  any  country,  or  at  any 
time,  of  self-conscious  racial  feeling."  In 
those  countries  where  race  hatred  has  been 
thought  to  be  most  active  as  a  motive,  Bryce 
has  shown  the  play  of  other  forces:  in  Hun 
gary  and  Transylvania  it  was  "not  till  some 
time  after  the  Napoleonic  wars"  that  there 
began  to  be  "talk  of  antagonism  between 
Magyars,  whether  nobles  or  peasants,  and 
the  subject  Slavs  or  Humans."  It  is  never 
theless  a  matter  of  record  that  the  Magyar 
conceived  the  Slovaks  as  being  not  human. 
In  Bohemia  the  quarrels  of  Czechs  with  the 
smaller  German  element  "were  not  purely 
racial,  but  complicated  with  the  religious 
disputes  of  the  Hussites  and  the  orthodox 
Catholics,  and  with  scholastic  disputes  be 
tween  the  Nominalists  (mostly  Germans) 

1  Viscount  Bryce,  "Race  Sentiment  as  a  Factor  in  History."    A 
lecture  delivered  before  the  University  of  London,  February  22,  1915. 

71 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

and  the  Realist  party,  which  embraced  the 
bulk  of  Czech  teachers  and  students."  As 
regards  Ireland,  "the  sentiment  of  a  separate 
Irish  nationality  seems  to  date  from  the 
strife,  first  over  land  and  then  over  religion 
also,  which  began  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth." 
Yet  although  national  feeling,  "even  in  the 
clays  of  the  United  Irishmen  and  the  rebellion 
of  1798  .  .  .  was  not  distinctively  racial,"  it 
was  treated  as  such  by  those  Englishmen 
who  proved  that  the  Irish  were  inferior. 
Even  to-day  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  the 
very  Negro  who,  it  is  believed  by  so  many 
white  Americans,  occasions  insurmountable 
obstacles  to  the  maintenance  of  civilization, 
is  absorbed  and  assimilated.  In  Brazil,  whose 
Negro  population  is  most  numerous  of  the 
Latin-American  republics,  there  is  no  race 
feeling  against  intermarriage.  Persons  of 
mixed  blood  are  considered  white  and  augment 
the  white  population.  "The  result  is  so  far 
satisfactory,"  says  Bryce,  "that  there  is 
little  or  no  class  friction.  The  white  man 
does  not  lynch  or  maltreat  the  Negro;  indeed, 
I  have  never  heard  of  a  lynching  anywhere  in 
South  America  except  occasionally  as  part 
of  a  political  convulsion.  The  Negro  is  not 
accused  of  insolence  and  does  not  seem  to 

72 


THE  BOOTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

develop  any  more  criminality  than  naturally 
belongs  to  any  ignorant  population  with 
loose  notions  of  morality  and  property." l 

Three  conclusions  are  suggested  by  Bryce 
from  his  South  American  observations,  of 
which  two  are  especially  pertinent:  The 
first  that  a  race,  the  result  of  fusion  of  two 
parent  stocks,  is  not  necessarily  inferior  to  the 
stronger  parent  or  superior  to  the  weaker; 
the  second  that  "race  repugnance  is  no 
such  constant  and  permanent  factor  in  human 
affairs  as  members  of  the  Teutonic  peoples 
are  apt  to  assume.  Instead  of  being,  as  we 
Teutons  suppose,  the  rule  in  this  matter, 
we  are  rather  the  exception,"  and  history  as 
well  as  observation  of  our  world  seems  to 
suggest  "that  since  the  phenomenon  is  not 
of  the  essence  of  human  nature,  it  may  not 
be  always  so  strong  among  the  Teutonic 
peoples  as  it  is  to-day." 

The  exceptional  phenomenon,  then,  which 
invidiously  distinguishes  white  Americans  from 
Mohammedans,  Chinese,  the  Latin  races,  is 
referable  to  something  not  essentially  different 
from  Jewish  pride.  If  the  Jew  was  born  to 
teach,  the  Anglo-Saxon  was  born  to  rule. 

1  James  Bryce,  South  America,  1912.     New  York:  The  Macmillan 
Company.     P.  480. 

73 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

On  the  blood  of  the  Jew  a  religious  inheritance 
had  set  a  high  price;  on  the  blood  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  a  political  tradition  of  far  more 
recent  date,  due  in  large  measure  to  Norman 
heritage.  Every  race  so  distinguished,  not 
biologically,  but  by  its  own  cult  of  superiority, 
by  its  traditions  and  its  self-interpretation, 
becomes  to  that  degree  an  only  child  of  God, 
spoiled  and  hated.  Science  has  not  meant  the 
extinction  of  God;  but  it  has  sounded  the 
doom  of  tribal  and  racial  gods.  And  in 
science's  twilight  of  the  gods  lurks  the  promise 
of  a  brighter  dawn  in  which  races  will  be 
valued  not  by  any  scale  of  superior  or  inferior, 
quantitatively,  but  as  different  colors  in  civ 
ilization,  qualitatively  different. 

If  the  effect  of  the  Southerner's  assumptions 
is  to  make  him  believe  the  Negro  to  be  racially 
inferior,  he  must  resent  proof  to  the  contrary. 
It  is  proper  for  an  inferior  race  to  serve,  to 
hew  wood  and  draw  water,  to  pick  cotton,  to 
work  the  farm.  It  is  a  reversal  of  the  divine 
plan  for  the  inferior  to  aspire  to  the  seats  of 
the  mighty,  to  want  to  become  postmasters 
in  Southern  towns,  or  aldermen.  The  divine 
plan  is,  like  most  plans,  subject  to  interpreta 
tion.  It  precludes  voting  for  Negroes  south 
of  the  Ohio  River  in  the  opinion  of  some.  But 

74 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

Atlanta,  Georgia,  is  south  of  the  Ohio  River 
and  Negroes  of  Atlanta  vote  for  President 
of  the  United  States.  In  1919  the  Negroes 
of  Atlanta  defeated  at  the  polls  a  proposal  to 
issue  bonds  because  the  white  citizens  had 
not  agreed  to  equitable  expenditure  of  the 
proceeds  on  Negro  schools.  This  was  also 
contrary  to  the  divine  plan. 

The  insistence  on  divine  plan,  on  dogma, 
always  implies  a  process  of  rationalization. 
The  believer  maintains  his  point  of  view  with 
desperate  insistence,  not  by  accumulating 
facts  and  reasoning  from  them.  That  process, 
the  result  of  idle  curiosity  and  dispassionate 
investigation,  deals  death  to  dogma.  But 
rationalization  is  the  process  of  interpreting 
the  facts  with  reference  to  beliefs  arrived  at 
before  the  facts  are  examined.  That  is  what 
poisons  race  relations  in  the  South  and  in  a 
measure  affects  the  thinking  of  all  Americans 
on  the  subject.  The  dogmatist  on  the  sub 
ject  of  race  inferiority  not  only  resists  rea 
soning,  he  resists  fact.  The  despised  literary 
gentlemen  of  the  North,  sometimes  known  as 
"nigger-lovers,"  discuss  the  undebatable,  or, 
as  a  Negro  preacher  once  put  it,  unscrew 
the  inscrutable. 

What  are  typical  Southern  attitudes  toward 

75 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

the  race  question?  There  are  many,  and  a 
statement  of  each  would  be  emphatically  repu 
diated  by  a  large  part  of  the  population 
to  which  it  was  attributed.  The  cultivated 
Southern  gentleman  of  the  middle-class  family 
which  knows  Negroes  chiefly  as  house  servants, 
as  tradesmen,  or  even  as  artisans  would  dis 
sent  from  the  expressions  used  by  the  poor 
white.  Historically  the  relations  between 
the  Negro  and  the  ruling  classes  of  the  South 
have  often  been  closer  than  those  between  the 
Southerner  of  lineage  and  culture  and  the 
poor  white.  In  fact,  the  colored  man,  by 
the  account  of  one  of  his  own  spokesmen,  who 
acted  as  Speaker  of  the  Mississippi  legislature 
during  Reconstruction  days,  preferred  the 
aristocrat  of  the  past.  Even  during  slavery 
days  their  relations  had  been  cordial  and 
friendly.  Women  of  the  best  white  families 
had  taught  and  cared  for  slaves,  had  con 
ducted  religious  services,  and  had  maintained 
personal  relations  which  were  regarded  as 
their  duty  and  wrere  their  pride.  Where  the 
white  aristocrat  had  sometimes  harbored  a 
tolerance  which  came  of  affectionate  con 
descension  and  was  reinforced  by  a  realization 
of  the  material  advantages  of  the  enforced 
associations,  the  poor  white  felt  antipathy 

76 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

and  jealousy.  The  Negro,  in  his  eyes,  was 
an  instrument  of  oppression,  a  competitor 
in  the  industrial  market,  whose  function 
it  was  to  undercut  the  white  artisan's  wages 
and  to  degrade  him.  It  was  not  long  after 
the  introduction  of  slaves  before  plantation- 
owners  learned  that  Negro  slaves  could  be 
used  as  carpenters,  shoemakers,  plasterers, 
painters,  blacksmiths,  drivers  of  teams.  "Al 
though  the  slaves  were  not  responsible  for  this 
condition,"  says  Lynch,  "the  fact  that  they 
were  there  and  were  thus  utilized  created  a 
feeling  of  bitterness  and  antipathy  on  the  part 
of  the  laboring  whites  which  could  not  be 
easily  wiped  out."  l 

The  growth  of  large  plantations,  the  relega 
tion  of  the  poor  white  to  less  fertile  areas, 
the  same  conditions  which  have  always  mili 
tated  against  immigration  of  foreigners  to 
the  South  on  any  appreciable  scale,  have  con 
trived  to  keep  this  animosity  alive.  The 
poor  white  had  this  much  compensation, 
however:  "A  white  man  was  always  a  white 
man,"  as  Prof.  Albert  Bushnell  Hart  points 
out,  "and  as  long  as  slavery  endured,  the 
poorest  and  most  ignorant  of  the  white  race 

1  John  R.  Lynch,  The  Facts  of  Reconstruction,  1915.    New  York; 
Neale  Publishing  Co,    P.  108. 

77 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

could  always  feel  that  he  had  something  to 
look  down  upon,  that  he  belonged  to  the  lords 
of  the  soil.  In  the  war  he  was  blindly  and 
unconsciously  fighting  for  the  caste  of  white 
men,  and  could  not  be  brought  to  realize 
that  slavery  helped  to  keep  him  where  he  wras, 
without  education  for  his  children,  without 
opportunities  for  employment,  without  that 
ambition  for  white  paint  and  green  blinds 
which  has  done  so  much  to  raise  the  Northern 
settler."  1 

The  Civil  War  has  been  aptly  called  a  rich 
man's  war  and  a  poor  man's  fight.  The 
motives,  then,  for  antagonism  between  poor 
wrhite  and  Negro  have  been  among  the 
most  powerful  common  to  human  beings — 
jealousy  and  pride.  In  industry  the  white 
artisan  hated  the  Negro  as  a  favored  com 
petitor.  This  hatred  was  bound  to  find  ex 
pression  in  the  fields  in  which  the  white  man 
was  favored — the  political  and  social.  It  was 
a  form  of  compensation  that,  poor  as  the 
white  might  be,  he  was  yet  kin  with  the  owner 
and  master  of  slaves,  could  afford  to  despise 
and  insult  the  black  man.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  extrav 
agantly  administered  and  meant  heavy  taxa- 

1  The  Soutiiern  South,  p.  40. 
78 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

tion — surely  no  sore  burden  on  the  poor 
whites  as  a  class — the  introduction  of  public 
schools  during  Reconstruction  days  met  with 
the  most  determined  opposition,  even  from 
the  poor  whites  themselves,  whose  status 
the  schools  might  have  been  expected  to  im 
prove.  Fifty  or  sixty  years  is  a  short  space 
in  which  to  change  feelings  so  deeply  ingrained 
as  hatred  for  black  men  on  the  part  of  poor 
whites.  Even  yet  it  is  operative  and  plays 
its  part  in  preventing  absorption  of  colored 
workmen  in  white  unions,  introducing  new 
industrial  problems  and  the  hates  and  dis 
trusts  consequent  upon  mutual  exclusiveness. 
The  white  man's  feelings  of  superiority  are 
still  played  upon  for  political  profit  and  are 
linked,  by  processes  which  might  be  examined 
in  detail,  to  the  most  powerful  of  man's 
impulses  and  emotions— those  related  to  sex. 
"The  last  fatal  campaign  in  Georgia  which 
culminated  in  the  Atlanta  massacre,"  says 
Doctor  DuBois,  "was  an  attempt,  fathered 
by  conscienceless  politicians,  to  arouse  the 
prejudices  of  the  rank  and  file  of  white  laborers 
and  farmers  against  the  growing  competition 
of  black  men,  so  that  black  men  by  law  could 
be  forced  back  to  subserviency  and  serfdom. 
It  succeeded  so  well  that  smoldering  hate 

79 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

burst  into  flaming  murder  before  the  politi 
cians  could  curb  it." 

In  the  South,  the  chivalresque  notions  of 
human  intercourse,  with  their  picturesqueness 
and  their  disadvantages,  survived  longer  than 
elsewhere  in  the  United  States.  The  beauties 
of  the  old  regime  are  sometimes  overdrawn, 
just  as  the  historian  of  the  court  functions  of 
the  time  of  Louis  XIV  often  forgets  to  describe 
the  odors  which,  in  the  absence  of  sanitation, 
almost  caused  the  stoutest  ambassadors  and 
perfumed,  bewigged,  buckled,  and  laced  gentle 
men  to  faint.  Like  any  civilization  whose 
eyes  are  blinded  to  the  substructure  of  misery 
and  desolation  upon  which  it  rests,  its  charms 
are  canonized.  The  divine  right  of  kings 
has  never  been  affirmed  with  more  certitude 
than  the  right  of  the  white  aristocrat  of  the 
South  to  rule  and  to  profit  from  the  enforced 
servitude  of  the  black  man.  The  chivalresque 
tradition  which  was  exemplified  in  the  ideal 
animating  the  aristocratic  South  no  less  than 
in  the  romances  of  medieval  Europe  em 
phasized  not  inquiry,  service,  labor  such  as 
is  the  badge  of  distinction  among  scientists. 
It  rewarded  personal  prowess,  sportsmanship, 
courtesy,  and,  in  matters  intellectual,  con 
formity.  Properly  cultivated,  the  chivalresque 

so 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

tradition  has  much  to  give  to  this  country, 
perhaps  through  such  Southern  gentlemen 
as  preserve  appreciation  of  values  less  tem 
poral  than  those  measurable  by  the  dollar 
or  by  popular  acclaim.  But  on  the  relations 
of  the  races  the  effect  of  the  chivalresque 
traditions  was  almost  uniformly  bad.  It 
led  men  to  assert  as  permanent  and  immutable 
a  system  whose  consequences  they  did  not 
stop  to  examine.  It  transmuted  to  romance, 
faith,  nobility,  and  a  whole  dictionary  of 
appealing  terms  attitudes  grounded  in  base 
pecuniary  considerations.  Toward  any  in 
vestigation  into  its  own  foundations  it  per 
petuated  an  attitude  of  condemnation  as 
toward  sacrilege. 

"Nothing  was  so  prejudicial  to  slavery," 
says  Professor  Hart,  "as  the  attempt  to 
silence  the  Northern  abolitionists;  for  a 
social  system  that  was  too  fragile  to  be  dis 
cussed  was  doomed  to  be  broken." 

It  is  too  often  assumed  that  the  Civil  War 
broke  that  system.  It  survives  still,  subject 
to  a  subtler  process  of  disintegration  than 
war,  leaving  its  last  records  not  only  in 
memoirs  and  mellow  reminiscences,  but  in 
blood,  violence,  terror,  and  hatred.  Many 
Southern  white  men  of  the  laboring  classes 

6  81 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

deplore  the  industrial  policy  of  divide  et  impera, 
which  is  used  to  exploit  both  them  and  colored 
men.  So  do  many  Southern  white  men  of 
the  possessing  and  industrial  classes  deplore 
the  exploitation  of  the  Negro  politically  and 
industrially.  The  attitude  of  these  dissenters, 
however,  is  not  typical  of  preponderant 
groups;  and  it  is  not  vocal.  An  iron  con 
formity  is  still  clamped  upon  the  South  and 
holds  to  its  standards  him  who  would  remain 
a  part  of  its  political,  social,  and  industrial 
activities. 

Before  the  Civil  War  white  aristocrats 
were  never  put  in  any  position  in  which  they 
might  be  forced  into  competition  with  the 
Negro.  Manual  labor  finds  no  place  in  a 
chivalresque  tradition.  It  was  the  part  of 
the  white  man  to  administer,  to  superintend, 
to  plan.  Further,  manual  labor  was  made  a 
social  criterion  which  even  now,  in  more 
advanced  civilizations,  except  in  the  case  of 
the  sculptor,  painter,  musician,  and  crafts 
man,  divides  the  "upper"  from  the  "lower" 
classes.  To  a  degree  the  distinction  survives 
in  that  the  prejudice  against  the  colored  man 
is  now  directed  against  those  who  "rise" 
above  the  socially  inferior  laboring  class. 
This  social  prejudice  plays  easily  into  the 


THE  SOOTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

industrial  need  for  a  large  supply  of  cheap 
labor. 

"In  the  last  analysis,"  remarks  Professor 
Hart,  "most  of  the  objections  to  Negro 
education  come  down  to  the  assertion  that  it 
puts  the  race  above  the  calling  whereurito 
God  hath  appointed  it.  The  argument  goes 
back  to  the  unconscious  presumption  that  the 
Negro  was  created  to  work  the  white  man's 
field,  and  that  even  a  little  knowledge  makes 
him  ambitious  to  do  something  else." 

There  is  even  yet  a  large  body  of  opinion 
in  the  South  which  would  deny  the  Negro 
education,  not  only  because  ignorance  makes 
him  a  source  of  exploitable  labor,  but  because 
it  debars  him  from  participation  in  the 
prerogative  of  the  superior  race — ruling  by 
political  processes.  When  it  was  undreamed 
of  that  colored  men  might  vote,  participation 
was  not  a  class  distinction.  As  soon  as  the 
vote  and  office-holding  became  an  issue, 
it  became  as  sacred  as  a  dogma  that  the 
Negro  was  unfit  politically,  as  that  industrially 
he  was  unfit  for  anything  but  the  rougher 
and  more  arduous  kinds  of  labor.  But  the 
economic  advance  of  the  Negro,  the  growth 
of  a  Negro  bourgeoisie,  has  threatened  these 
assumptions.  With  wealth  and  the  advan- 

83 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

tages  that  wealth  brings  at  his  command, 
many  a  Negro  threatens  the  white  man's 
complacence.  It  is  against  the  advancing, 
prosperous  colored  man,  therefore,  that  fury 
is  frequently  directed.  If  a  Negro,  outside 
of  the  few  large  Southern  cities,  presumes  to 
dress  well,  he  is  known  as  a  "dude  nigger." 
Many  a  Negro  in  large  Southern  cities,  even, 
is  confronted  daily  with  signs  informing 
him  that  dogs  and  Negroes  are  not  permitted 
in  the  public  parks,  thus  making  it  clear 
that,  whatever  his  competency,  education, 
and  sensibilities,  racial  barriers  are  immutable. 

"The  whole  South,"  remarks  Professor 
Hart,  "is  full  of  evidence  not  so  much  that 
the  whites  think  the  Negroes  inferior,  as  that 
they  think  it  necessary  to  fix  upon  him  some 
public  evidence  of  inferiority,  lest  mistakes 
be  made." 

"It  not  infrequently  happens,"  says  the 
Department  of  Labor's  report  on  Negro 
Migration  in  1916-17,  "that  the  Negro  who 
obviously  makes  money  and  gets  out  of 
debt  is  dismissed  from  the  plantation,  a 
common  expression  being  that  as  soon  as  a 
Negro  begins  to  make  money  he  is  no  longer 
of  any  account." 

The  evidence  as  to  the  humiliations  to 

84 


THE  SOUTirS  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

which  Negroes  are  subject  in  large  cities  of 
the  South  is  so  voluminous  that  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  adduce  it  here.  The  quality 
of  treatment  accorded  respectable  colored 
people,  however,  is  suggested  in  another  pas 
sage  from  the  Labor  Department's  report: 

"Most  of  the  larger  Southern  cities  not  only 
exclude  Negroes  from  their  fine  parks,  but 
make  little  or  no  provisions  for  the  recreation 
of  the  colored  people.  Harassing,  humiliat 
ing  *  Jim-Crow'  regulations  surround  Negroes 
on  every  hand  and  invite  unnecessarily  severe 
and  annoying  treatment  from  the  public 
and  even  from  public  servants.  To  avoid 
trouble,  interference,  and  even  injury,  Negroes 
must  practise  eternal  vigilance  in  the  streets 
and  on  common  carriers.  The  possibilities 
of  trouble  are  greatly  increased  if  the  colored 
men  are  accompanied  by  their  wives,  daugh 
ters,  or  sweethearts.  For  then  they  are  more 
likely  to  resent  violently  any  rough  treatment 
or  abuse,  and  insulting  language,  whether 
addressed  directly  to  them  or  to  the  women. 
Colored  wromen  understand  this  so  well  that 
they  frequently  take  up  their  own  defense 
rather  than  expose  their  male  friends  to  the 
danger  of  protecting  them." 

It    will    be    appreciated    to    what    extent 

85 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

absolutist  distinctions  are  made  on  the  basis 
of  color,  fortified  by  traditional,  industrial, 
and  political  considerations,  when  it  is  remem 
bered  that  the  chivalresque  culture  demands 
the  protection  of  womanhood  from  violence, 
from  insult,  even,  at  the  cost  of  life  itself. 
Subject  to  forces  of  attrition,  the  white  man's 
scheme  of  the  South  constitutes  a  closed 
system,  intolerable  to  the  manhood  and 
womanhood — provided  manhood  and  woman 
hood  be  conceded  to  them — of  any  individuals 
of  whatever  race  who  are  subjected  to  it. 
Fortified  as  it  is  by  dogma,  exempt  from 
examination  or  discussion,  the  imposition  of 
it  remains,  as  has  been  stated,  a  matter  of 
force  majeure.  The  nation  is  no  longer 
divided  against  itself  to  the  extent  that  it 
was  before  the  Civil  War.  But  the  South 
is  divided  against  itself  to  an  extent  known 
only  to  Southerners,  especially  Southern 
colored  people.  The  World  War,  which  might 
have  been  expected  to  override  wraves  of 
dissent,  to  engulf  in  an  emotional  flood  of 
national  sentiment  all  but  irreconcilable  dif 
ferences,  intensified  the  strains  and  stresses 
which  race  feeling  has  imposed  upon  the  social 
structure  of  the  Southern  states.  The  War 
Department  encountered  fierce  resistance  to 

86 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

the  quartering  of  colored  troops  in  Southern 
communities,  in  fact  to  the  enlistment  and 
training  of  colored  men;  although  the  draft 
boards,  from  which  colored  men  were  excluded, 
discriminated  in  the  matter  of  exemptions 
and  certifications  against  Negroes.  The  net 
effect  upon  white  Americans  of  the  service  of 
Negroes  in  the  armies  of  the  United  States 
was  a  dangerous  increase  in  bitterness  and 
resentment,  a  determination  to  "show  the 
nigger"  when  he  returned  from  service  that 
the  equality  to  some  extent  imposed  by  the 
United  States  government  in  its  military 
arm  was  not  to  affect  political  or  social 
relations  when  the  emergency  had  passed. 

A  balance  in  any  such  social  system  is  pos 
sible  only  when  the  victims  of  that  system 
are  thoroughly  cowed.  Meanwhile  that  bal 
ance  is  represented  by  peculiar  phrases  and 
attitudes  not  common  to  the  rest  of  the 
country.  Thus  to  be  "radical"  elsewhere 
than  in  the  South  has  signified  general  politi 
cal  liberalism  of  a  sort  more  or  less  extreme. 
In  the  South  to  be«*adical  has  meant  to  most 
people  an  intolerable  attitude  on  race  relations, 
to  wit,  a  tendency  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the 
"nigger."  The  word  "radical"  took  on  its 
significance  in  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction 

87 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

days.  Because  the  board  of  trustees  of  a 
Mississippi  educational  institution  included 
"carpet-baggers"  and  native  Republicans, 
The  Jackson  Clarion  voiced  its  abhorrence  in 
these  terms: 

"The  people  have  revolted  at  the  thought 
of  placing  their  sons  under  radical  patronage, 
when  the  country  abounds  with  schools  uncor- 
rupted  by  radical  influences."  1 

Times  have  changed.  Republicans  else 
where  may  be  reactionary,  stand-pat,  conser 
vative,  or  any  shade  between;  but  in  many 
communities  of  the  South  to  vote  Republican 
is  to  "vote  nigger"  and  be  a  dangerous  or 
contemptible  "radical,"  unworthy  of  asso 
ciation  with  decent  people.  It  will  readily 
be  seen  that  thereby  certain  bounds  are  set 
to  that  flexibility  of  political  discussion  which 
is  supposed  to  be  characteristic  of  so  experi 
mental  and  undogmatic  a  form  of  government 
as  democracy.  Only  the  most  thundering 
acceptance  of  current  claptrap  about  Negro 
inferiority,  the  most  obvious  pandering  to 
prejudice,  hatred,  and  apprehension,  will  meet 
the  public  mind  dominated  by  such  obsessions 
as  have  been  suggested.  When  the  balance 
of  that  system  is  disturbed,  because  it  is  sus- 

1  Quoted  by  Garner,  op.  cit.,  footnote  p.  368. 
88 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

peeled  that  victims  may  resist,  political 
discussion  enters  a  more  violent  phase,  in 
which  all  white  men  become  a  tribe  massed 
and  gathered  to  fight  for  its  very  existence. 
There  are,  of  course,  those  who  stand  above 
and  aside  from  the  battle.  But  they  are  not 
elected  to  the  Senate  or  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives;  they  write  few  editorials. 

Violence  in  the  South  is  not  only  always 
imminent;  it  is  actual.  "Lawlessness,"  says 
Professor  Hart — and  hundreds  of  other  ob 
servers  will  corroborate  him— "is  the  plague 
of  the  South.  .  .  .  The  number  of  homicides 
and  mob  murders  is  not  so  serious  as  the 
continual  appeals  to  violence  by  editors  and 
public  men  who  are  accepted  as  leaders  by 
a  large  minority  and  sometimes  a  majority 
of  the  white  people."  "The  commonest  form 
of  terror,"  he  says  later,  "is  lynching,  a 
deliberate  attempt  to  keep  the  race  down 
by  occasionally  killing  Negroes  sometimes 
because  they  are  dreadful  criminals,  fre 
quently  because  they  are  bad,  or  loose- 
tongued,  or  influential,  or  are  acquiring 
property,  or  otherwise  irritate  the  whites." 
Many  a  white  Southerner  will  confess  in 
casual  conversation  that  he  believes  it  neces 
sary  to  "lynch  a  Digger"  now  and  then  in 

89 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

order  that  they  may  be  kept  in  their  place; 
and  what  that  place  is  in  the  white  South 
erner's  estimation  has  been  sufficiently  indi 
cated.  Meanwhile  the  bonds  of  personal 
relationship  which  used  to  mitigate  the  hos 
tility  of  races  under  slavery,  when  white 
aristocrat  and  colored  people  had  points  of 
contact,  are  steadily  being  dissolved.  Testi 
mony  is  almost  unanimous  to  the  effect  that 
the  gap  between  white  people  of  standing 
and  Negroes  is  being  widened. 

In  Reconstruction  days  the  wiiite  men  and 
women  who  came  from  New  England  to 
teach  in  Negro  schools  were  unable  to  obtain 
board  or  lodging  in  the  homes  of  Southern 
white  people  and  often  had  to  live  with 
Negroes.  "Living  upon  terms  of  social  equal 
ity  with  the  Negroes  was  a  grave  offense 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Southern  white,"  says 
Garner,  "and  was  sure  to  cost  the  offender 
whatever  respect  the  community  might  other 
wise  have  entertained  for  him." 

Of  the  teachers  who  were  whipped  and  the 
schools  burned,  of  the  teacher  who  was 
charged  by  the  Ku-Klux  with  "associating 
with  Negroes  in  preference  to  the  white  race 
as  God  ordained,"  the  trace  survives.  Then  it 
was  deemed  a  disgrace  for  a  woman  to  teach 

90 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

in  a  Negro  school.  It  is  a  practice  scarcely 
more  honored  now  than  it  was,  although  the 
insult  which  accompanied  has  to  some  degree 
fallen  away.  But  the  breach  between  white 
and  colored  people  remains  and  widens. 

Of  the  colored  man's  attitude  toward  the 
social  system  of  the  South,  the  white  man 
who  "  knows  the  nigger"  is  almost  entirely 
ignorant.  Few  if  any  white  men  ever  enter 
Negro  homes;  they  do  not  attend  Negro 
meetings  or  churches.  They  are  not  spoken 
to  frankly,  except  by  certain  colored  men 
who  are  terrorized  or  bribed  into  syco 
phancy.  Few  Negroes  trust  the  Southern 
white  man;  and  although  their  commerce 
may  be  amiable  and  peaceable,  it  is  seldom 
the  White  man  knows  what  the  Negro  is 
thinking.  But  the  Negro  knows  the  white 
man's  thoughts.  He  knows  because  members 
of  his  race  are  in  constant  association  with 
and  attendance  upon  the  whites;  and,  too, 
there  are  many  Negroes  of  so  light  complexion 
that  unless  they  are  personally  known  they 
are  indistinguishable  from  white  men.  That 
circumstance,  in  the  event  of  tension  and 
imminent  violence,  makes  the  maintenance 
of  secrecy  a  matter  of  difficulty  for  the 
"superior"  race. 

91 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  discussion  of 
race  relations  at  this  point  becomes  a  con 
sideration  of  a  potential  state  of  war.  That 
condition  becomes  more  and  more  a  menace 
as  the  Negro  advances,  as  he  decides  that  he 
will  fight  and  die  rather  than  be  lynched, 
Jim-Crowed,  terrorized,  browbeaten,  and 
robbed.  It  was  not  until  the  migration 
reached  its  height  and  Southern  plantations 
and  farms  were  being  seriously  depleted  of 
labor  that  a  process  of  soul-searching  began 
which  found  its  echo  even  in  editorials  of  the 
Negro's  bitterest  antagonists  among  the  press. 
Said  The  Daily  News,  of  Jackson,  Mississippi: 

"We  allow  petty  officers  of  the  law  to 
harass  and  oppress  our  Negro  labor,  mulcting 
them  of  their  wages,  assessing  stiff  fines  on 
trivial  charges,  and  often  they  are  convicted 
on  charges  which  if  preferred  against  a  white 
man  would  result  in  prompt  acquittal."  * 

The  Charlotte  Observer  remarked  that  "the 
real  thing  that  started  the  exodus  lies  at  the 
door  of  the  farmer  and  is  easily  within  his 
power  to  remedy.  The  Negro  must  be  given 
better  homes  and  better  surroundings.  Fifty 
years  after  the  Civil  War  he  should  not  be 
expected  to  be  content  with  the  same  con- 

1  Quoted  in  Negro  Migration  in  1U16-17.     U.  S.  Labor  Department. 

02 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 
ditions   which   existed   at    the   close   of   the 


war." 


The  white  South's  first  response  to  the 
migration  was,  as  might  have  been  expected, 
violent  resentment.  It  is  not  much  good 
being  a  superior  race  if  the  inferior  race  moves 
away.  Doubtless  the  beginning  of  the  north 
ward  movement  wTas  assisted  by  the  ravages 
of  the  boll  weevil  in  the  Southwest.  But  the 
migration  continued  and  grew  and  it  was  borne 
in  upon  the  most  unobservant  that  among 
the  many  motives  which  prompted  Negroes 
to  leave  the  South  was  a  desire  for  educational 
opportunities  for  their  children,  for  human 
and  kindly  intercourse,  for  citizenship  and 
the  vote.  Blind  as  the  nation  had  been  to 
the  failure  of  attempts  to  "settle"  problems 
of  race  relations  by  violence  and  terrorism, 
murder  and  lynching,  mitigated  if  at  all  by 
condescension,  it  could  not  disregard  the 
evidence  presented  by  the  northward  migra 
tion  and  by  the  imminence  of  armed  violence 
in  many  Southern  cities.  When  it  is  deemed 
necessary,  in  anticipation  of  the  use  of  re 
volvers  and  guns,  to  stop  selling  them  to 
Negroes,  although  the  sale  to  whites  goes  on 
unchecked,  it  would  seem  the  part  of  wisdom 

1  Quoted  in  Negro  Migration  in  1916-17.    U.  S.  Labor  Department, 

93 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

to  delve  into  the  resentment  which  turns 
finally  for  redress  not  to  courts,  but  to  desperate 
self-defense.  Conditions  such  as  prevailed 
in  1919  were  doubtless  in  part  due  to  that 
vague  diffusion  of  discontent  and  assertions 
afte*r  the  war  known  as  "unrest."  But  any 
such  system  as  prevailed  and  as  still  prevails 
in  the  Southern  states  of  the  United  States 
was  bound  to  arrive  at  a  point  where  read 
justment,  either  by  intelligent  direction  or 
in  violent  conflict,  would  be  unavoidable. 

It  may  be  thought  that  the  characteriza 
tion  of  relations  between  the  races  in  the  South 
bears  unduly  upon  the  shortcomings  of  the 
Southern  white  man.  In  point  of  fact,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  ignorance 
and  brutality  characteristic  of  many  rural 
communities.  There  are,  of  course,  vast  num 
bers  of  middle-class  and  cultivated  people 
very  much  like  similar  populations  elsewhere. 
But  they  are  perforce  silent  and  acquiescent 
in  the  system  of  thought  which  is  formed, 
as  I  have  suggested,  by  inheritance,  by  eco 
nomic  and  political  considerations,  and  is 
made  effectual  not  by  the  people  who  deplore 
excesses,  but  by  the  many  who  are  wanting 
in  civilized  inhibitions.  Rarely,  unless  by 
such  a  catastrophe  as  the  Atlanta  riots,  is 

94 


THE  SQUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

the  better  sentiment  of  citizens  roused  to 
the  self-assertion  which  makes  repetition  of 
such  horrors  impossible.  Even  now  there  are 
persons  who  foresee  progressive  degeneration 
of  good  will  among  white  and  black  men, 
not  because  elsewhere  in  the  world  there  is 
lacking  demonstration  that  a  modus  Vivendi 
could  be  devised,  but  because  most  of  the 
effective  forces  playing  upon  race  relations  at 
present,  such  as  the  press,  public  discussion, 
industrial  policy,  are  contriving  to  intensify 
and  make  more  malignant  the  disease  of 
hatred  and  misunderstanding  which  afflicts 
those  relations. 

"If  the  South  would  keep  the  Negro  and 
have  him  satisfied,"  says  Mr.  W.  T.  B. 
Williams  in  his  report  to  the  Labor  Depart 
ment,  "she  must  give  more  constructive 
thought  than  has  been  her  custom  to  the 
Negro  and  his  welfare." 

Decent  wages,  schools — "miserable  make 
shifts,"  The  Jackson  Daily  News  called  the 
rural  schools  for  Negro  children — high  schools, 
of  which  now  there  are  almost  none  for 
Negro  boys  and  girls;  abatement  of  "Jim 
Crow"  legislation  and  restrictions;  safety 
from  mob  violence  and  lynching;  "protection 
against  constant  irritation,  insult,  and  abuse 

95 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

for  110  reason  other  than  that  he  is  a  black 
inau" — these  are  among  the  prescriptions  for 
more  tolerable  conditions  in  the  Southern 
states.  If  it  were  not  for  the  color  of  the 
victims,  the  nation  would  rise  in  anger  and 
abhorrence  and  see  to  it  that  the  conditions 
which  now  prevail  were  remedied.  If  it  is 
found  troublesome  or  even  unprofitable  to 
attempt  a  cure  of  such  deep-seated  malignancy 
as  the  ignorance  and  prejudice  and  self- 
seeking  which  controls  the  relations  of  the 
races  in  this  country,  it  will  in  the  long  run 
be  found  more  unprofitable  and  troublesome 
not  to  attempt  a  cure.  The  South's  "color 
psychosis/'  as  I  have  called  the  instability 
and  excitability  of  the  public  mind  with 
reference  to  race,  affects  its  entire  life.  It 
affects  the  choice  of  men  to  represent  the 
South  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  and 
thereby  affects  national  policy  for  internal 
and  on  foreign  affairs. 

"The  experiment,"  said  Nathaniel  South- 
gate  Shaler,  "of  combining  in  a  democratic  so 
ciety,  in  somewhere  near  equal  numbers,  two 
such  widely  separated  races  as  the  Aryans  and 
Negroes  has  never  been  essayed.  ...  It  may 
as  well  be  confessed  that  a  true  democracy, 
social  as  well  as  political,  is  impossible  in 

06 


THE  SOUTH'S  COLOR  PSYCHOSIS 

such  conditions,  and  that  any  adjustment 
which  may  be  effected  must  have  many  of  the 
qualities  of  an  oligarchy."  1 

There  is  no  objection  to  the  frank  recognition 
of  such  a  proposition  as  Doctor  Shaler  put 
forward  and  to  acquiescence  in  it.  But  to 
proclaim  democracy;  to  shout  freedom  and 
equality,  and  actually  to  maintain  that  pseudo- 
democracy  by  oppression  and  terrorism  which 
compares  favorably  with  the  best  efforts 
of  the  Turk  in  Armenia;  to  divorce  the  lan 
guage  of  the  politician  and  statesman  so 
completely  from  the  terms  of  the  life  he 
represents  that  every  intelligent  and  enlight 
ened  man  must  smile  at  his  pronouncements; 
to  make  integrity  impossible  because  the 
South  and  the  nation  cannot  face  the  deep 
division  within  itself — is  to  poison  at  their 
source  the  aspirations  of  the  men  whose  faith 
looks  forward  to  societies  untainted  by  vio 
lence. 

7  l  The  Neighbor,  p.  180. 


IV 

ANTHROPOLOGY   AND   MYTH 

"  INEXORABLE  doctrines  on  the  inequality 
of  human  beings,"  says  Jean  Finot, 
"adorned  with  a  scientific  veneer,  are  multi 
plied  to  infinity.  .  .  .  Despotic,  cruel,  and 
full  of  confidence  in  their  laws,  the  creators 
and  partizans  of  all  these  doctrines  do  their 
best  to  impose  them  as  dogmas  of  salvation 
and  infallible  guides  for  humanity."  1  The 
methods  used  to  establish  the  inequalities  of 
which  M.  Finot  speaks  are  almost  as  various 
as  the  doctrines  themselves.  Some  persons 
proceed  from  a  dissected  human  brain  and 
a  set  of  scales  to  draw  conclusions  applicable 
to  the  politics  of  a  fifth-rate  village.  Others, 
their  senses  sharpened  to  a  degree  which  would 
make  any  dog  envious,  detect  race  by  odor, 
as  the  hero  of  Shaw's  Pygmalion  could  detect 
nativity  by  accent.  Given  an  absence  of 

1  Jean  Finot,  Race  Prejudice,  translated  by  Florence  Wade-Evans, 
1907.    New  York:  E.  P.  Dutton  Co. 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

irony  and  self-criticism  in  a  community  as 
orthodox  as  the  Southern  states,  the  most 
extreme  statements  find  adherents.  Asser 
tions  which,  isolated  from  their  context  of 
assumptions  and  passions,  would  be  sharply 
challenged  become  commonplace.  In  any 
attempt  upon  race  relations,  then,  before  it  is 
useful  to  suggest  plans  and  procedure,  it  is 
necessary  to  clear  away  the  intellectual  rub 
bish  that  prevents  even  formulation  of  the 
problems.  Especially  is  this  true  of  the 
relations  of  Negro  and  white  in  the  United 
States;  for  in  no  civilized  community  in  the 
world  are  more  amazing  assumptions  current 
and  confident  affirmations  made  with  less 
solid  knowledge  to  which  to  refer  them. 

M.  Finot  himself  speaks  of  the  effect  which 
the  ideas  of  Gobineau  exercised  upon  the 
philosophy  of  modern  Germany.  It  was 
Gobineau,  it  will  be  recalled,  who  discovered 
that  the  best  of  civilization  is  due  to  the 
Germanic  races,  whose  blood  sustains  modern 
society.  He  it  wTas  who  as  much  as  any  one 
man  popularized  in  Germany  the  notion  of 
superior  and  inferior  races.  "It  has  been 
found,"  remarks  M.  Finot,  in  comment,  "that 
Gobinism  displayed  too  much  pessimism  in 
the  face  of  too  little  knowledge,  and  that  even 

99 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

its  ideas  of  barbarous  and  inferior  peoples 
lacked  clearness."  But  the  United  States 
has  its  own  Gobinism  which  takes  over 
almost  bodily  his  style  of  argumentation  and 
the  assertions  made  later,  under  the  influence 
of  Darwinism,  by  Lapouge.  If  universal  his 
tory  becomes  "reduced  to  the  history  of  the 
variations  of  cerebral  structures,"  many 
Americans  would  extend  the  process  from 
history  to  prophecy  and  predict  the  future 
on  the  basis  of  cranial  measurements.  In 
this  connection  there  is  more  than  passing 
interest  in  M.  Finot's  statement  that  for 
Gobineau  "it  is  only  a  matter  of  bringing 
his  contributions  to  the  great  struggle  against 
equality  and  the  emancipation  of  the  prole 
tariat."  For  the  American  Negro  has  been 
the  proletarian  par  excellence,  and  the  motives 
to  keep  him  a  proletarian  have  been  strong. 
It  is  the  evangelist,  animated  by  religious 
fervor  and  race  patriotism,  that  presents  the 
extreme  of  opinion  on  race  matters  in  this 
country.  He  is  as  devoted  to  racial  purities 
and  ascendancies  as  was  ever  an  apologist  of 
Teutonic  hegemony.  The  evangelist's  state 
ments,  unlike  the  propositions  hazarded  by 
scientists,  have  the  advantage  of  being  true 

for  all  time.    No  apology  is  necessary,  there- 

100 


ANTHROPOLOGY  ANJLr  MYTH   :  :\ 

fore,  for  offering  in  evidence  the  remarkable 
information  with  which  an  American  regaled 
the  world  so  long  ago  as  1905  in  The  Color 
Line,  whose  subtitle  reads,  "A  Brief  in 
Behalf  of  the  Unborn."  The  author,  William 
Benjamin  Smith,  wrote  from  Tulane  Uni 
versity.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  beliefs  and 
opinions  he  voiced  at  a  time  when  the  South 
was  smarting  under  the  sting  of  the  invitation 
to  dine  extended  by  President  Roosevelt  to 
Booker  T.  Washington  still  pass  current. 

What  is  the  main  issue  for  Mr.  Smith? 
How  does  he  attack  the  manifold  questions 
of  judicial  procedure,  office-holding,  trade- 
unionism,  municipal  politics,  housing?  His 
answer  is  simple:  The  South  "stands  for 
blood9  for  the  'continuous  germ-plasma9  of 
the  Caucasian  race."  That  Northerners  and 
Europeans  may  choose  their  associates  and 
such  table  company  as  they  please  is  con 
ceded.  But  "in  the  South  the  color  line 
must  be  drawn  firmly,  unflinchingly — with 
out  deviation  or  interruption  of  any  kind 
whatever."  There  is  a  tu  quoque  for  the 
Northern  capitalists,  who  could  hardly  main 
tain  that  their  "ruling  corporate  powers"  are 
even  barely  just  "toward  the  poor  and  hum 
ble,  in  the  administration  of  the  important 

101 


•THE  NEG-RO  3?ACES  AMERICA 

industrial  trusts  which  God  has  so  wisely 
placed  in  their  hands.  They  are  giants,  and 
it  is  in  the  nature  of  giants  to  press  hard." 

Comparatively,  then,  the  South  is  sinless. 
On  the  merits  of  her  own  case  the  South 
"is  entirely  right  in  keeping  open  at  all  times, 
at  all  hazards,  and  at  all  sacrifices  an  impas 
sable  social  chasm  between  black  and  white. 
This  she  must  do  in  behalf  of  her  blood,  her 
essence,  of  the  stock  of  her  Caucasian  race." 
The  alternative  is  mingling  of  the  races. 
"It  would  make  itself  felt  at  first  most 
strongly  in  the  lower  strata  of  the  white 
population;  but  it  would  soon  invade  the 
middle  and  menace  insidiously  the  very  up 
permost.  .  .  .  As  a  race,  the  Southern  Caucasian 
would  be  irreversibly  doomed"  Mr.  Smith  is  so 
quotable  that  restraint  is  necessary  in  appro 
priating  his  eloquence.  "No  other  conceiv 
able  disaster,"  he  says  of  race  mixture,  "that 
might  befall  the  South  could,  for  an  instant, 
compare  with  such  miscegenation  within  her 
borders.  Flood  and  fire,  fever  and  famine, 
and  the  sword — even  ignorance,  indolence, 
and  carpet-baggery — she  may  endure  and 
conquer  while  her  blood  remains  pure;  but 
once  taint  the  wellspring  of  her  life,  and  all 

is  lost — even  honor  itself.     It  is  this  immediate 

102 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

jewel  of  her  soul  that  the  South  watches 
with  such  a  dragon  eye,  that  she  guards 
with  more  than  vestal  vigilance,  with  a 
circle  of  perpetual  fire."  As  guardians  of  the 
South's  vestal  fire,  one  is  tempted  to  offer 
Mr.  Smith  volunteers  from  the  three  million 
to  five  million  mulattoes  of  the  United  States. 
"It  may  not  be  that  she  is  conscious  of  the 
immeasurable  interests  at  stake  or  of  the  real 
grounds  of  her  roused  antagonism,"  adds 
Mr.  Smith,  very  truly;  "but  the  instinct 
itself  is  none  the  less  just  and  true  and  the 
natural  bulwark  of  her  life."  Upon  what  is 
the  justice  of  the  South's  instinct,  as  formu 
lated  by  Mr.  Smith,  based?  Simply  upon  the 
proof  "cr  analogically  and  by  six  thousand 
years  of  planet-wide  experimentation"  that 
"the  Negro  is  markedly  inferior  to  the  Cau 
casian,"  and  that  "the  commingling  of  inferior 
with  superior  must  lower  the  higher."  Edu 
cation  and  civilization  are  "weak  and  beggarly 
as  over  against  the  almightiness  of  heredity, 
the  omniprepotence  of  the  transmitted  germ- 
plasma.  Let  this  be  amerced  of  its  ancient 
rights,  let  it  be  shorn  in  some  measure  of  its 
exceeding  weight  of  ancestral  glory,  let  it 
be  soiled  in  its  millennial  purity  and  integrity, 
and  nothing  shall  ever  restore  it;  neither 

103 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

wealth,  nor  culture,  nor  science,  nor  art,  nor 
morality,  nor  religion — not  even  Christianity 
itself.  Here  and  there  these  may  redeem 
some  happy,  spontaneous  variation,  some 
lucky  freak  of  nature;  but  nothing  more — 
they  can  never  redeem  the  race.  If  this  be 
not  true,  then  history  and  biology  are  alike 
false;  then  Darwin  and  Spencer,  Haeckel  and 
Weismann,  Mendel  and  Pearson,  have  lived 
and  labored  in  vain."  What  has  any  con 
troversialist  to  offer  against  Mr.  Smith  who 
would  bet  the  world's  history  and  science 
on  the  truth  of  his  assertions,  who  asserts 
that  a  man  "may  sin  against  himself  and 
others,  and  even  against  his  God,  but  not 
against  the  germ-plasma  of  his  kind"?  For 
"if  the  best  Negro  in  the  land  is  the  social 
equal  of  the  best  Caucasian,  then  it  will  be 
hard  to  prove  that  the  lowest  white  is  higher 
that  the  lowest  black,"  and  Darwin  will  have 
lived  in  vain.  Lest  it  be  thought  that  few 
will  follow  Mr.  Smith,  who,  like  Ibsen's  Brand, 
seeks  "alles  oder  nichts"  among  the  inacces 
sible  pinnacles  of  absolutism,  he  assures  the 
reader  that  he  has  "some  acquaintance  with 
some  of  the  best  elements  of  the  Southern 
society,  some  of  the  best  representatives  in 
nearly  all  the  walks  of  Southern  life";  and 

104 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

those  elements  will  never  waver  a  hair's- 
breadth  from  "uncompromising  hostility  to 
any  and  every  form  of  social  equality  between 
the  races." 

Mr.  Smith's  doctrine,  then,  is  resolved  into 
an  affirmation,  for  which  he  offers  proofs, 
that  the  Negro  is  "inferior"  biologically  to 
such  an  extent  that  no  education  or  civiliza 
tion  could  bring  him  up  to  white  men's 
standards;  that  racial  mixture  would  result 
in  disastrous  "mongrelization"  of  the  "Cau 
casian  race,"  and  that  an  inevitable  corollary 
of  the  abatement  of  rigid  barriers  against 
"social  equality"  of  the  Negro  and  members 
of  the  "Caucasian  race"  is  this  mongrelization. 
Therefore,  let  the  Negro  remain  on  the  planta 
tion  and  in  "personal  and  occasional  service 
.  .  .  where  his  abilities  may  be  most  naturally 
and  most  profitably  employed."  The  Negro, 
like  other  "backward  peoples,"  has  "neither 
part  nor  parcel  in  the  future  history  of  man." 
Race  transcends  individual  considerations. 
"There  is  a  personal  and  even  a  social  morality 
that  may  easily  become  racially  immoral." 
In  the  interests,  therefore,  of  the  purity  of 
Caucasian  germ-plasma,  the  Negro  is  to  be 
denied  the,  for  him,  useless  higher  education, 
is  to  be  used  as  a  plantation  laborer  or  ser- 

105 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

vant,  and  to  be  allowed,  at  the  convenience 
of  nature,  to  become  extinct.  Even  mem 
bership  in  labor  unions  will  never  be  accorded 
the  "negroid,"  and  the  plans  of  Booker 
Washington  and  "his  Northern  multimill 
ionaire  admirers"  for  making  skilled  laborers 
of  the  Negro  cannot  succeed  in  solving  the 
race  problem. 

Another  Southerner,  of  a  different  stamp, 
who  has  accepted  the  postulate  of  modern 
anthropology  that  all  races  of  men  are  kin, 
and  therefore  hesitates  to  ally  himself  with 
Mr.  Smith  and  the  angels,  contributes  first 
hand  description  of  the  Negro  pertinent  to 
this  discussion.  The  Negro,  Mr.  W.  D. 
Weatherford *  finds,  is  lacking  in  self-control. 
"To  him  the  future  has  little  meaning." 
This  lack  is  explained  by  the  exigencies  of 
the  tropical  climate  under  whose  influence 
the  race  had  dwelt.  Likewise  the  native 
of  the  tropics  is  led  into  a  form  of  sexual 
indulgence  "which  seems  nothing  less  than 
terrible."  "The  next  weakness  of  Negro 
character  which  stands  out  prominently  is 
superstition."  Fear  of  angry  spirits,  "of 
the  power  of  the  fetish,"  have  to  a  degree 
"become  so  deeply  ingrained  in  the  nature 

1  Opus  cit. 
106 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

of  the  Negro  that  the  slaves  and  their  de 
scendants  have  never  been  able  to  shake 
themselves  free  from  its  terrible  hold."  Hence 
the  Negro's  conservatism.  Cruelty  to  ani 
mals  and  dependents  is  another  character 
which  Mr.  Weatherford  lists:  "Some  of 
the  horrible  practices  of  punishment  in  Africa 
would  be  unbelievable  did  not  one  have  the 
thought  of  the  Inquisition,  St.  Bartholomew, 
the  French  Revolution,  ever  staring  him 
in  the  face."  The  portrait  of  the  Negro  is 
then  still  further  elaborated  with  vanity  and 
conceit,  wordiness,  and  absence  of  the  power 
of  initiative.  As  against  these  shadows,  Mr. 
Weatherford  opposes  the  Negro's  fidelity. 
"In  fact,"  he  remarks,  "if  I  must  deal  with  a 
shiftless  man,  I  believe  I  would  take  my 
chances  on  a  trifling  Negro  rather  than  a 
trifling  white  man.  Not  a  few  of  the  man 
agers  and  owners  of  large  plantations  have 
expressed  to  me  this  same  preference."  That 
fidelity  which  was  supposed  to  be  char 
acteristic  of  the  old-time  Negro  survives 
in  the  "new  Negro."  "They  may  lie  or 
steal  in  petty  ways,"  says  Mr.  Weatherford, 
"but  even  the  poorest  type  of  Negro  rarely 
betrays  a  specific  trust."  Add  to  these 
traits  gratitude,  generosity,  the  absence  of 

107 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

malice  or  a  revengeful  spirit,  kindliness,  a 
sense  of  humor,  religious  sense,  love  of  music, 
"souls  responsive  to  the  truest  of  musical 
rhythm."  "What  if  the  race  is  not  the 
most  brilliantly  intellectual?  What  if  they 
are  lacking  in  self-mastery?  What  if  there 
is  often  a  lack  of  industry  and  thrift? — here 
is  a  catalogue  of  race  traits  enough  to  make 
any  race  happy,  virtuous,  useful,  and  even 
great."  Thus  two  Southerners. 

It  will  perhaps  be  advantageous  to  list  the 
characteristics  of  the  Negro  as  they  are  given 
by  Messrs.  Smith  and  Weatherford,  and  to 
add  to  them  such  as  will  be  recognized  as 
passing  current.  The  list  might  read  some 
what  as  follows: 


Against  For 

1.  "Inferior"    biologically    as  1.  Faithful. 

indicated     by    abnormal  2.  Kindly. 

length    of    arm,    progua-  3.  Generous. 

thism,  brain  weight  and  4.  Musical  (rhythmically). 

structure,  eye  coloration,  5.  Grateful. 

flat  nose,  protruding  lips,  6.  Religious. 

large     zygmotic     arches,  7.  Lacking  in  malice  and  venge- 

size  of  face,  thick  cranium.  fulness. 

weak  lower  limbs,  skin  col-  8.  Physically     stronger     than 

or,  "woolly"   hair,  thick  white. 

epidermis,  "rancid"  skin  9.  More    resistant    to    certain 

odor,  cranial  sutures.  diseases  and  even  immune 

2.  "Inferior"  culturally.  to  some. 

108 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 


For 

10.  Adaptable   to   climate   and 

culture. 

11.  Persistent,  racially. 


Against 

3.  Intellectual       development 

stops  at  puberty. 

4.  Immoral  (sexually). 

5.  Uncontrolled  as  to  appetites 

and  subject  to  "primal 
emotions"  such  as  fear, 
anger,  jealousy,  self-ex 
altation,  self-depreciation, 
sorrow. 

6.  Superstitious. 

7.  Cruel. 

8.  Conceited  and  wordy. 

9.  Shiftless  and  lazy. 

10.  Lacking  in  initiative. 

11.  Deficient  in  reasoning  power 

and  the  "higher"  intel 
lectual  processes. 

12.  Criminal. 

There  are  in  addition  certain  qualities 
commonly  ascribed  to  the  person  of  color 
possessing  some  admixture  of  white  blood. 
Thus: 

Against 

1.  "Degenerate"  and  "inferior 

hybrids." 

2.  Physically  inferior,  succumbs 

easily  to  disease:  lung  ca 
pacity  inferior,  respira 
tion  rate  unfavorable, 
never  passes  sixty  years, 
"cachetic." 

3.  Listless. 

4.  Criminal. 

5.  Short-lived. 

6.  Fails  to  propagate. 

7.  "Scrofulous,  consumptive." 

109 


For 

1.  Abler  than  the  Negro  of  pure 

blood. 

2.  More    intelligent    than    the 

Negro. 

3.  Sturdier  physically  than  the 

Negro. 

4.  Furnishes  leaders  of  the  race. 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

It  will  be  noticed  that  many  of  the  char 
acters  attributed  to  Negroes  and  to  colored 
men  with  white  ancestry  are  contradictory. 
The  whole  field  of  science,  from  biology  and 
chemistry  to  anthropology  and  archeology, 
is  involved  in  the  discussion,  to  which  the 
explorer,  the  historian,  the  psychologist,  the 
violently  partizan  amateur  contribute  their 
beclouding  pronouncements.  The  tendency 
among  men  of  science  is  to  narrow  the  dis 
cussion  from  such  all-inclusive  terms  as  "racial 
inferiority"  to  measurement  of  specific  apti 
tudes  and  characters.  The  characters  of 
race  and  culture  are  so  many  and  so  com 
plex  that  it  is  assuming  omniscience  to 
pretend  to  sum  up  all  available  knowledge, 
and,  having  weighed  and  balanced,  to  give 
final  judgment  for  or  against  a  race.  Modern 
anthropology  takes  the  position,  with  respect 
to  the  Negro,  as  with  other  races,  that  no 
direct  connection  between  physical  characters 
and  abilities  or  aptitudes  has  yet  been  estab 
lished.  Thus  even  the  possession  of  large 
or  small  brains  does  not  postulate  genius  or 
stupidity.  The  measurement  of  ability  by 
intelligence  tests  is  still  in  its  infancy,  a 
development  of,  at  most,  the  last  twenty 

years.     Nearly    if   not    all    of   the   scientific 

no 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

experiment  such  as  the  measurement  of  intel 
ligence  of  school-children,  of  Negro  and  white 
races,  is  subject  to  criticism  of  method,  in 
that  it  has  not  been  possible  to  isolate  racial 
characters  from  influence  of  social  environ 
ment. 

In  an  account  of  one  experimental  study 
of  white  and  colored  children  of  Richmond 
and  Newport  News,  Virginia,  the  author, 
George  Oscar  Furguson,1  ably  summarizes 
the  conflicting  views  entertahied  by  scientists 
the  world  over.  "One  would  not  be  far 
wrong,"  he  remarks,  "in  saying  that  all  of 
the  experimental  work  done  on  the  psychology 
of  the  Negro  prior  to  1900  is  of  practically 
negative  value."  And  yet,  on  the  basis  of 
observations,  often  partial,  more  often  un 
critical  and  inaccurate,  even  scientists  have 
dogmatized.  Le  Bon  divided  the  races  of 
man  into  four  classes,  of  which  the  "superior," 
as  contrasted  with  "primitive,"  "inferior," 
and  "average,"  consisted  in  the  "Indo-Euro- 
peans."  G.  Stanley  Hall  has  repeated  the 
assertion  that  the  Negro's  development  is 
partially  arrested  at  puberty.  Bean,  in  his 
studies  at  Baltimore,  came  to  the  conclusion 

1  The  Psychology  of  the  Negro:  An  Experimental  Study,  Archives 
of  Psychology,  April,  1916. 

Ill 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

that  not  only  the  anterior  association  center  of 
the  Negro's  brain,  but  the  whole  frontal  lobe, 
was  smaller  than  the  white  man's,  whereas 
Mall  three  years  later  concluded  that  "with 
the  present  crude  methods  the  statement 
that  the  Negro  brain  approaches  the  fetal 
or  simian  brain  more  than  does  the  white  is 
entirely  unwarranted."  Mall,  according  to 
Furguson,  "reviews  the  previous  work  done  in 
this  field,  and  conies  to  the  final  conclusion 
that  there  is  no  valid  evidence  to  show 
significant  brain  differences  from  the  point  of 
view  of  race,  sex,  or  genius."  From  the 
point  of  view  of  the  psychologist,  Woodworth 
in  1910,  reviewing  the  work  of  himself, 
Rivers,  Bruner,  Ranke,  McDougall,  and 
Myers,  said  of  the  status  of  race  psychology: 
"One  thing  the  psychologist  can  assert  with 
no  fear  of  error.  Starting  from  the  various 
mental  processes  which  are  recognized  in  his 
text-books,  he  can  assert  that  each  of  these 
processes  is  within  the  capabilities  of  every 
group  of  mankind.  .  .  .  Statements  to  the 
contrary,  denying  to  the  savage  powers  of 
reasoning,  or  abstraction,  or  inhibition,  or 
foresight,  can  be  dismissed  at  once.  If  the 
savage  differs  in  these  respects  from  the 

civilized  man,  the  difference  is  one  of  degree, 

112 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

and  consistent  with  overlapping  of  savage 
and  civilized  individuals." 

It  is  therefore  hazardous,  to  say  the  least, 
in  the  present  state  of  information  about 
race  and  race  characters,  to  assert  that  any 
race  is  inferior  and  "incapable"  of  any  known 
state  of  culture.  Furguson's  tests  led  him  to 
conclude  that  "the  average  performance  of 
the  colored  population  of  this  country  in 
such  intellectual  work  as  that  represented 
by  the  tests  of  higher  capacity  appears  to 
be  only  about  three-fourths  as  efficient  as 
the  performance  of  whites  of  the  same  amount 
of  training,"  and  he  indicated  his  belief  that 
the  difference  is  probably  wider  than  the 
tests  show.  On  the  other  hand,  his  tests 
did  not  show  "the  relative  ability  of  colored 
and  white  persons  in  the  intelligent  handling 
of  concrete  materials."  But  just  what  the 
tests  do  show  is  open  to  question. 

"It  is  always  difficult  to  state  just  what 
mental  function  is  experimented  upon  by  a 
given  test,"  says  Furguson.  "The  various 
traits  so  overlap  and  are  so  dependent  upon 
one  another  in  their  action  that  no  one  trait 
can  be  completely  isolated."  Meanwhile,  it 
can  be  said  without  fear  of  contradiction  that 
there  is  no  authentic  corroboration  for  the 

8  113 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

following  statements:  (1)  that  the  mulatto 
is  less  hardy  than  the  "pure"  Negro;  (2) 
that  any  difference  in  brain  structure  between 
white  and  Negro  has  been  indubitably  estab 
lished;  (3)  that  the  Negro's  mental  growth 
"comes  to  a  comparative  standstill  at  adoles 
cence";  (4)  that  the  "relative  merits"  of 
pure  Negroes  and  mulattoes  have  been  defi 
nitely  made  known.  Although  most  of  the 
writers  who  "have  dealt  writh  the  problem 
of  the  relative  mental  ability  of  the  white 
and  the  Negro  take  the  view  that  the  Negro 
is  inferior,"  yet,  says  Furguson  later,  "it  is 
probably  true  that  there  are  more  people 
who  believe  in  racial  mental  equality  than  the 
reviews  would  indicate;  equality  is  taken  for 
granted,  as  in  the  greater  part  of  our  school 
system  and  in  our  political  life.  [?]  ...  It 
may  be  said  that  the  main  conclusion  one 
may  draw  from  a  study  of  the  literature 
bearing  upon  the  mental  side  of  our  race 
question  is  that  we  have  taken  a  step  toward 
its  solution,  but  that  the  problem  is  still  a 
problem." 

Despite  the  doubts  and  the  lacunae  which 
modern  science  must  confess  to  in  its  data  on 
race,  popular  discussion,  never  especially 
responsive  to  subtleties,  always  seizes  on 

114 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

extreme  statements  and  makes  general  prin 
ciples  of  them  of  universal  application.  In 
this  feast  of  generalities,  contradiction,  en 
throned  as  a  sort  of  piratical  goddess,  sits 
and  smiles  evilly  on  folly.  Thus  the  Negro, 
branded  as  lazy  and  shiftless,  was  credited 
by  Shaler1  with  an  ability  to  toil,  "such, 
indeed,  as  has  never  elsewhere  appeared  in  a 
primitive  people."  This  same  scientist,  who 
asserts  that  in  the  Negro  "the  state-building 
capacities  are  lacking,"  is  flatly  contradicted 
by  the  observations  of  anthropologists,  sum 
marized  by  Lowie  to  the  effect  that  the 
Negroes  of  Africa  "are  conspicuous  for  their 
ability  to  form  large  and  powerful  political 
states.  ...  If  we  contrast  Negro  culture 
on  the  average  not  with  the  highest  products 
of  Dutch,  Danish,  or  Swiss  culture,"  he  con 
tinues,  "but  with  the  status  of  the  illiterate 
peasant  communities  in  not  a  few  regions 
of  Europe,  the  difference  will  hardly  be  so 
great  as  to  suggest  any  far-reaching  hereditary 
causes."  2  Furthermore,  Mr.  Lowie  suggests, 
the  determination  of  racial  potentialities  by 
the  psychologist  does  not  solve  the  problems 


1  Nathaniel  Southgate  Shaler,  The  Neighbor,    p.  156. 

2  Robert  H.   Lowie,   Culture  and  Ethnology,   1917.     New  York: 
Douglas  C.  McMm  trie. 

116 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

of  culture:  "Even  if  an  ultimate  investiga 
tion  should  definitely  fix  the  cultural  limits 
to  which  a  given  race  is  hereditarily  subject, 
such  information  could  not  solve  the  far  more 
specific  problem  why  the  same  people  a  few 
hundred  years  earlier  were  a  horde  of  bar 
barians  and  a  few  hundred  years  later  formed 
a  highly  civilized  community."  When  the 
investigator  has  carefully  accumulated  and 
collated  more  facts  than  are  available  at 
present,  his  conclusions  may  become  useful 
for  American  society.  Meanwhile  it  is  the 
sort  of  argumentation  that  appears  in  Mr. 
Smith's  book  which,  imperceptibly  almost, 
influences  discussion  of  the  Negro  and  of 
race  relations  even  in  the  North.  One  may 
smile  at  any  one's  presuming  to  know  what 
relative  positions  God  has  ordained  for  Negro 
and  white  man.  But  given  a  conviction 
on  the  part  of  one-third  or  one-half  of  the 
white  group  of  a  nation  that  a  colored  group 
is  inferior;  bolster  that  conviction  with  con 
stant  reference  in  the  press  to  colored  people 
as  criminals;  treat  the  Negro  in  public  dis 
cussion  as  an  amalgam  of  joke  and  calamity — 
and  no  public  will  be  disposed  to  analyze 
the  social  conditions  which  tend  to  make  the 
Negro  with  whom  they  may  come  in  contact 

116 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

what  he  is.  Much  of  what  might  be  called 
the  pro-Negro  side  of  race  discussion  has 
been  in  the  nature  of  negative  evidence. 
For  example,  it  is  trumpeted  far  and  wide 
that  the  Negro  is  racially  and  by  nature  a 
criminal.  Statistics  of  crime  are  adduced 
in  proof.  Then  the  social  scientist  investi 
gates  and  discovers  that  a  far  larger  per  cent, 
of  Negro  mothers  than  white  must  leave  their 
families  during  the  daytime  in  order  to  earn 
money,  thus  contributing  to  juvenile  delin 
quency.  He  discovers  that  in  Southern  courts 
Negroes  are  convicted  on  evidence  on  which 
any  white  man  would  go  scot-free.  He  finds 
that  Negro  vice,  of  which  there  is  so  much 
talk,  is  much  more  closely  involved  with  the 
"superior  race"  than  the  reports  of  the  news 
papers  would  indicate.  "The  cry  in  the 
Southern  newspapers  against  Negro  dives," 
remarks  Professor  Hart,  "generally  ignores 
the  fact  that  many  of  them  are  carried  on 
by  white  people,  and  others  are  partially 
supported  by  white  custom."  1  As  contrasted 
with  the  looseness  and  immorality  commonly 
ascribed  to  the  Negro,  there  are  such  observa 
tions  as  those  of  Junod 2  of  the  elaborate 

1  Albert  Buslmell  Hart,  The  Southern  South. 

2  Henri  A.  Junod,  The  Life  of  a  South  African  Tribe. 

117 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

ceremonial  and  religious  restrictions  upon 
sexual  indulgence  which  guide  natives  of 
Africa.  But  in  the  conditions  of  modern 
news  service,  mis  statements  always  find  their 
way  to  a  larger  public  than  do  corrections, 
partly  because  they  are  more  frequent  and 
more  emphatic,  partly  because  they  are 
considered  to  possess  more  "news  value" 
and  are  therefore  boldly  displayed,  partly 
because  such  misstatements  reinforce  popular 
preconceptions.  To  such  an  extent  is  public 
sentiment  formed  by  obvious  fabrications 
that  even  those  men  who  would  voice  the 
Negro's  grievances  must  bow  to  prejudice. 

In  November,  1919,  for  example,  The 
Arkansas  Gazette  published  a  transcript  of 
an  address  by  the  president  of  Hendrix  Col 
lege.  The  speaker,  obviously  animated  by 
the  disastrous  riots  which  had  occurred  in 
Phillips  County  in  October,  1919,  spoke  of 
the  necessity  for  examining  the  causes  of 
discontent  among  Negroes,  of  establishing 
understanding  and  cooperation  between  lead 
ers  of  both  races.  But  he  felt  obliged  to 
"sweeten"  his  remarks  to  Southern  white 
men  by  saying  that  "the  Negro  is  a  child 
race"  and  is  "weak,  docile,  and  is  easily  con 
trolled."  He  conceded  that  the  Negro  "has 

118 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

much  of  humanity  in  him— -is  good-natured 
and  quick  to  forget  wrongs."  The  phrasing 
is  the  more  significant  in  that  it  came  from  a 
man  who  realized  the  dangers  created  by  the 
prevailing  injustice  to  the  Negro,  and  was 
eager  to  make  his  hearers  realize  those  dangers 
also. 

Even  cultivated  Americans  are  too  fre 
quently  unaware  of  the  incertitudes  of  the 
scientist  on  questions  involving  race.  But 
they  are  fed  with  certitudes,  from  the  Southern 
press,  of  the  "we  know  the  nigger"  type. 
Mr.  Lowie  has  shown  "how  many  factors 
have  to  be  weighed  in  arriving  at  a  fair 
estimate  of  racial  capabilities,  factors  which 
are  naively  ignored  in  most  popular  discus 
sions  of  the  subject.  We  can,  farther,  say 
positively  that  whatever  differences  may  exist 
have  been  grossly  exaggerated."  The  process 
of  gross  exaggeration  is  a  norm  of  public  dis 
cussion  of  race  relations.  The  mere  fact 
of  the  mention  of  race  in  connection  with 
crime,  the  repetition  in  head-lines  of  such 
epithets  as  "Negro  Fiend,"  "Negro  Mur 
derer,"  the  tacit  assumptions  underlying 
which  have  made  it  possible  to  associate 
race  with  fortuitous  criminal  acts,  are  a 
measure  of  the  extent  to  which  the  South's 

119 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

color  psychosis  is  shared  by  and  colors  the 
thought  of  the  nation.  Crime,  except  in  so 
far  as  it  is  analyzed  into  the  conditions  which 
have  produced  it,  consists  of  a  series  of 
symptoms.  To  talk  of  any  civilization  in 
terms  of  the  crimes  committed  by  members 
of  its  society  is  to  talk  about  a  living  organism 
in  terms  of  the  symptoms  of  its  disease.  From 
no  other  point  of  view  is  severer  criticism 
of  the  American  press  possible  than  from  that 
of  a  citizen  who  desires  less  embittered  sus 
picion  and  more  understanding  of  Negro 
and  white  man  for  one  another.  Before  the 
era  of  the  World  War  the  impress  of  such 
conformity  of  public  opinion  as  prevails  in 
the  South  was  foreign  to  the  rest  of  the 
nation.  But  even  if  there  is  not,  as  there 
was  in  Washington,  in  Omaha,  and  in  Chicago, 
before  the  riots  there,  a  deliberate  press 
campaign  to  debase  the  Negro,  continual  and 
casual  reporting  of  Negro  criminality  will 
have  the  same  effect. 

Washington  has  long  been  a  border  on 
which  Northern  and  Southern  attitudes  tow 
ard  race  have  met  and  been  pressed  in 
conflict.  Technically  the  Northern  attitude 
has  prevailed,  even  under  Democratic  admin 
istrations;  attempts  to  enact  street-car  segre- 

120 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

gation  and  other  Jim  Crow  ordinances  for  the 
District  of  Columbia  failed.  One  such  meas 
ure  was  introduced  at  the  very  time  of  the 
riots.  During  the  riots  the  Southern  attitude 
prevailed.  White  men  did  try  to  show  the 
Negro  "his  place."  The  conflict  between 
Northern  and  Southern  points  of  view,  re 
peatedly  checked  as  Jim  Crow  bills  applying 
to  the  District  of  Columbia  were  defeated, 
then  went  over  to  the  newspapers.  The 
statistics  of  the  Washington  chief  of  police 
had  little  weight  against  the  reports  of  a 
crime  wave  and  flaring  head-lines  announcing 
that  another  Negro  brute  had  "attacked" 
a  white  woman.  The  condition  of  hysteria 
wrhich  the  newspapers  effected  was,  presum 
ably,  local  to  Washington.  It  was  obvious 
a  press  campaign  was  under  way.  Anti- 
prohibitionists  wrere  triumphantly  pointing 
to  the  "wave  of  crime"  in  support  of  their 
contentions.  The  commissioners  of  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  and  the  chief  of  police  were 
involved  in  charges  of  poor  administration. 
To  any  reader  of  newspapers  to  whom  printed 
paper  is  not  apocalyptic,  ulterior  motive  was 
written  over  the  face  of  the  "crime  wave" 
in  which  the  newspapers  were  bathed.  A 

critical  attitude  might  have  been  expected  of 

121 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

news-distributing  agencies  and  of  correspond 
ents  of  powerful  newspapers — that  is,  on  the 
part  of  any  one  who  had  had  no  experience 
with  news  distribution.  But  the  most  inflam 
mable  misstatements  were  absorbed  whole 
and  were  sent  broadcast  throughout  the 
country.  What  was  by  admission  of  a  com 
missioner  of  the  District  of  Columbia  a  series 
of  attacks  by  white  men  upon  Negroes  was 
distorted  by  a  New  York  Times  head-line  into 
"Negroes  again  riot  in  Washington,  killing 
white  men,"  by  The  New  York  World  to 
"Three  are  killed  as  blacks  renew  riots  in 
capital,"  and  by  The  New  York  Evening  Tele 
gram  to  "United  States  cavalry  unable  to 
quell  Negroes."  The  white  mobs  were  beaten 
back  by  Negroes  themselves.  But  white 
mobbism  won  its  victory  in  the  newspapers. 
To  a  Northern  public,  not  consciously  affected 
by  the  rigidity  of  Southern  sentiment  about 
race,  there  came,  nevertheless,  news  reports 
of  a  sort  which  that  Southern  sentiment 
would  have  exacted.  Similar  conditions  pre 
vailed  with  regard  to  the  riots  in  Arkansas, 
in  Knoxville,  in  Omaha.  At  the  Southern 
end  of  the  telegraph  wires  which  feed  the 
country  with  its  news  are  frequently  men 

either  attuned  to  conformity  on  race  problems 

122 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

or  forced  into  it  in  virtue  of  the  necessity  for 
continuing  to  live  and  to  earn  in  a  white 
Southern  environment. 

To  what  an  extent  the  South's  color 
psychosis  afflicts  the  nation  few  Americans 
realize  unless  their  attention  is  called  to  such 
an  exceptional  performance  as  that  of  The 
Chicago  Daily  News  in  directing  Mr.  Carl 
Sandburg  to  report  on  race  relations  there. 
His  investigations  of  the  effects  of  the  mi 
gration,  real-estate  ventures,  industrial  and 
labor  conditions,  the  reflex  of  each  lynching 
on  the  North,  crime  and  politics,  which  The 
Daily  News  made  available  in  a  series  of 
articles  l  should  have  commended  itself  as  a 
matter  of  journalistic  procedure  to  every 
Chicago  editor  at  least.  "Publication  of  the 
articles  had  proceeded  two  weeks,"  says  Mr. 
Sandburg,  "and  they  were  approaching  the 
point  where  a  program  of  constructive  recom 
mendations  would  have  been  proper,  when 
the  riots  broke  and  as  usual  nearly  everybody 
was  more  interested  in  the  war  than  how  it 
got  loose."  But  it  was  not  until  the  war 
"got  loose"  that  most  editors  took  an  effec 
tive  interest  in  race  relations  in  Chicago,  and 

1  Republished  as  The  Chicago  Race  Riots,  1919.    Harcourt,  Brace, 
&  Howe,  New  York. 

123 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

then  in  a  number  of  cases  they  did  so  only 
to  pour  oil  on  the  flames.  The  condition 
Mr.  Sandburg  describes  is  a  characteristic 
one.  No  one  is  more  interested  in  war, 
apparently,  than  American  newspaper  edi 
tors,  and  no  one  is  less  interested  than  they 
in  how  it  gets  loose.  The  mixture  of  cynical 
indifference,  ignorance,  and  falsity  with  which 
race  relations  are  treated  daily,  extraneous 
circumstances  like  the  crime  of  a  degenerate 
are  fastened  to  race  and  the  connection 
riveted  upon  the  public  mind,  is  the  most 
sweeping  commentary  possible  on  the  Ameri 
can  approach  to  what  is  often  called  the 
nation's  tragedy. 

For  the  purpose  of  furnishing  Americans 
with  accurate  information  on  race  and  race 
relations,  modern  science  might  almost  as 
well  not  exist.  "Blind  devotion  to  the  dogma 
of  the  natural  inferiority  of  the  black  race  " 
has  indeed,  as  Mr.  George  Elliot  Howard 
says,  "cost  the  white  race  dearly.  ...  In 
fact,  for  nearly  a  hundred  years  the  intel 
lectual  energy  of  the  South  has  been  absorbed 
in  the  defense  or  protection  of  its  cherished 
race  dogma."  1  The  process  of  transferring 

1  "The  Social  Cost  of  Southern  Race  Prejudice/*  American  Journal 
of  Sociology,  March,  1917. 

124 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

this  fruitless  and  uninformed  conflict  to  the 
entire  United  States,  goes  relentlessly  on. 
"That  lust  is  a  racial  'instinct'  in  the  Negro/' 
continues  Mr.  Howard,  "uncontrollable  and 
ineradicable  —  is  the  sinister  lesson  taught 
by  the  novels,  the  dramas,  the  essays,  the 
newspapers,  and  the  political  demagogues 
that  have  shaped  public  opinion  in  the  South. 
The  most  suggestive  epithets  are  devised  to 
kindle  the  passions  of  the  mob."  If  the 
press  is  an  effective  means  of  creating  hatred 
and  distrust,  the  motion  picture  has  been 
shown  no  less  effective.  Dominated  by  fear, 
with  minds  closed  to  one  avenue  at  least, 
divided  against  itself,  sterilized  and  made  to 
that  degree  inflexible  in  thought,  the  white 
South  is  yet  an  integral  part  of  the  United 
States,  tied  to  popular  emotion  by  every 
means  of  communication  and  intercourse. 
It  seems  almost  exaggeration  to  say  that 
colored  people  know  more  about  the  facts 
of  race  and  of  race  relations  than  do  white 
Americans.  Yet,  in  many  instances  that  is 
true.  For  where  the  white  press  shirks  re 
sponsibility  for  presenting  the  analyses  and 
then  the  obvious  facts  which  wrould  make 
race  inequities  glaringly  clear,  the  colored 
press,  sometimes  with  bitterness,  takes  up 

125 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

the  burden.  A  white  American  desirous 
of  a  critical  insight  into  the  society  in 
which  he  flatters  himself  he  lives  could 
not  do  better  than  read  carefully  a  num 
ber  of  race  -  conscious  newspapers  pub 
lished  for  and  by  Negroes  of  the  United 
States. 

Upon  science,  then,  upon  the  carefully 
ascertained  information  essential  to  any  com 
munity's  progress,  the  South's  color  psychosis 
lays  obstructions  and  fetters.  Such  informa 
tion,  in  the  state  of  the  Southern  public  mind 
and  press,  cannot  penetrate  the  Southern 
states.  On  the  other  hand,  current  misin 
formation  and  dogma,  carried  in  every  vehicle 
for  creating  and  forming  public  opinion, 
emanates  from  the  South  to  the  rest  of  the 
country.  Misinformation  is  the  product  not 
necessarily  of  the  absence  of  means  to  truth, 
but  of  a  closed  mind.  Upon  the  nation's 
life  the  closed  mind  of  the  South  in  matters 
pertaining  to  race  has  had  a  poisonous  effect. 
The  distinction  of  North  and  South  is  neither 
made  nor  is  it  perpetuated  north  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line.  It  has  been  made  by  the 
South  in  virtue  of  a  Kultur  which  a  thousand 
semi -literate  Treitschkes  have  been  per 
mitted  to  affirm  from  their  editorial  chairs, 

126 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AND  MYTH 

basing  their  ascendancy  and  that  of  their 
kind  upon  malignant  and  ignorant  denun 
ciation  of  the  black  man;  upon  hostility 
to  the  life  of  the  modern  world — scientific 
investigation. 


CERTAIN    EFFECTS   OF   WAR 

"AGITATION  of  the  Negro  question 
-**•  became  bad  form  in  the  North,"  wrote 
Dr.  Charles  A.  Beard,  "except  for  quadrennial 
political  purposes."  1  It  is  still  bad  form, 
despite  the  occasional  resolutions  offered  in 
the  Senate,  to  investigate  over-representation 
of  the  South.  The  Negro,  elevated  to  the 
vote  and  to  political  equality  with  whites, 
was  dropped  by  the  more  "practical"  Re 
publicans  after  Reconstruction  days,  when 
the  "cash  nexus"  of  North  with  the  South 
had  been  once  more  formed.  Since  the 
earliest  days  of  American  political  life  it  has 
been  bad  form  to  agitate  the  Negro  question. 
First,  it  pierced  the  glamour  of  religious  and 
political  idealism  that  was  made  to  surround 
the  nation's  beginnings.  The  integrity  of 
American  Revolution  itself  was  qualified. 
"In  Jefferson's  original  draft  of  the  great 

1  Charles  A.  Beard,  Contemporary  American  History,  p.  22. 
128 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

Declaration  there  was  a  paragraph  indicting 
the  king  for  having  kept  open  the  African 
slave  trade  against  colonial  efforts  to  close 
it,"  says  Phillips,  "and  for  having  violated 
thereby  the  'most  sacred  rights  of  life  and 
liberty  of  a  distant  people,  who  never  offended 
him,  captivating  them  into  slavery  in  anoth 
er  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable  death  in 
their  transportation  thither.'  This  passage, 
according  to  Jefferson's  account,  'was  struck 
out  in  compliance  to  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  who  had  never  attempted  to  restrain 
the  importation  of  slaves  and  who  on  the 
contrary  still  wished  to  continue  it.  Our 
Northern  brethren  also  I  believe,'  Jefferson 
continued,  'felt  a  little  tender  under  these  cen 
sures,  for  though  their  people  have  very  few 
slaves  themselves,  yet  they  have  been  pretty 
considerable  carriers  of  them  to  others.' "  * 
Before  ever  the  Negro  himself  began  to  look 
about  the  American  political  scene  and  to 
criticize  principles  and  professions  the  spirit 
was  abroad  among  white  Americans.  But 
for  the  most  part  the  anomaly  was  resolved 
by  intensity  rather  of  idealism  than  of 
criticism. 
The  more  vehemently  Americanism,  free- 

1Ulrich  Bonnell  Phillips,  opus  dt.t  p.  116. 
9  129 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

dom,  and  equality  are  affirmed  publicly  the 
less  pressing  does  it  seem  to  examine  just 
what  they  practically  and  individually  imply. 
There  is  room  for  a  study  of  American  idealism 
as  it  is  rooted  in  race  relations.  If  the  Re 
publican  party  has  been  dominated  at  various 
times  by  practical  men  who  preferred  a  mixt 
ure  of  ethical  principles  and  industrial  laissez- 
faire,  the  Democratic  party  has  been  utterly 
tethered.  Democrats  might  rejoice  in  Andrew 
Jacksonism,  but  liberalism  in  a  modern  sense 
was  denied  them;  they  could  only  chafe 
at  the  division  with  which  even  Woodrow 
Wilson's  reliance  on  the  North  for  sentiment 
and  on  the  South  for  votes  menaced  their 
party.  The  Civil  War,  which  is  commonly 
believed  to  have  established  the  freedom 
of  the  American  Negro,  was,  in  this  sense, 
merely  another  symbol  of  the  struggle  and 
division  which  was  endemic  before  1861,  and 
still  continues. 

It  might  be  said  that  in  the  Civil  War 
the  armies  of  Lee  had  finally  surrendered 
to  Grant,  but  that  the  eventual  victory  had 
rested  with  the  Confederacy,  whose  cast  of 
mind,  whose  over-representation  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  have  been  almost  unchal 
lenged  in  the  nation.  "  Under  the  original  Con- 

130 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

stitution  of  the  United  States/'  says  Doctor 
Beard,  "only  three-fifths  of  the  slaves  were 
counted  in  apportioning  representatives  among 
the  states;  under  the  Fourteenth  Amendment 
all  the  Negroes  were  counted,  thus  enlarging 
the  representation  of  the  Southern  states." 
The  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion  represented  one  of  the  idealist  gestures 
which,  at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  Americans  hesitated  to  make. 

With  the  American  Negro  free,  a  voter, 
and  seemingly  given  a  fair  field  of  opportunity, 
race  relations  enjoyed  a  period  of  disregard. 
You  cannot  really  confer  freedom  upon  people 
who  do  not  demand  and  make  their  own 
freedom,  it  was  assumed,  and  the  "real 
Negro  question"  was  said  to  be: 

"Can  the  race  demonstrate  that  capacity 
for  sustained  economic  activity  and  permanent 
organization  which  has  lifted  the  white  masses 
from  serfdom?"  This  is  to  make  the  "race 
question"  again  too  preponderantly  one  of 
racial  aptitude.  Only  by  eventual  alliance 
of  the  Negro  with  white  labor,  if  that  should 
come  about,  will  the  inadequacy  of  the 
statement  be  demonstrated. 

Participation  of  the  United  States  in  the 
World  War  changed  the  symbol.  But  the 

131 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

thing  symbolized,  the  struggle  within  the 
nation,  remained.  It  was  an  external  enemy 
which  the  American  armies  wrent  out  to 
contend  with.  But  the  essential  struggle 
of  the  war  will  be  found  to  have  been  within 
the  United  States.  The  struggle  consisted 
again  in  an  effort  to  make  American  idealism 
ring  true.  Often  to  the  Negro,  the  focus  of 
this  struggle,  the  American  point  of  view 
was  cynically  represented.  One  group  of 
Negro  soldiers  were  frankly  and  brutally 
informed  that  they  were  going  to  fight  for 
democracy  in  Europe.  For  every  group  who 
met  the  fact  in  a  frank  statement,  dozens 
found  reason  to  come  to  that  conclusion. 
What  the  World  War  seems  again  to  have 
emphasized  and  crystallized  is  the  futility 
of  applying  the  phrases  of  political  idealism 
to  a  set  of  problems  which,  like  those  allied 
with  race  relations,  demand  varied  and  re 
sourceful  manipulation.  The  conflict  over 
race  relations  is  not  set  at  rest  by  the  unques 
tioned  prosperity  and  opportunity  which  the 
World  War  brought  to  many  colored  Ameri 
cans.  In  a  sense,  that  opportunity  has  only 
intensified  the  struggle.  Probably,  since  the 
United  States  entered  the  war,  more  Ameri 
cans  could  be  found  who  are  apprehensive 

132 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  Ol^  WAR 

of  the  future  of  race  relations  than  there 
were  before.  Many  colored  citizens  were  sat 
isfied  with  half-Americanism  until  hundred- 
per-cent.  Americanism  was  blared  and  dinned 
into  their  ears.  Under  the  circumstances 
it  was  expecting  too  much  to  believe  they 
would  cultivate  deafness.  Of  the  prosperity 
of  families  brought  North  and  of  the  educa 
tion  of  desire  which  comes  with  means  to 
gratify  wants,  much  may  be  ascribed  to  the 
war.  But  on  the  other  hand,  many  Negroes 
say  that  their  condition  is,  if  anything, 
worse  since  the  war.  And  progress  which 
depends  upon  a  shortage  of  labor  and  war 
wages  is  subject  to  fluctuation.  Under  the 
suggestive  title,  "Why  Southern  Negroes 
Don't  Go  South,"  Mr.  T.  Arnold  Hill 1  of 
the  Chicago  Urban  League  summarized  cer 
tain  of  the  World  War's  effects  upon  Negroes. 
Queries  sent  to  hundreds  of  Negroes  living 
in  the  South  elicited  replies  of  this  nature: 

"I  fail  to  see  any  improvement";  "There 
has  been  no  change  for  the  better";  "Why, 
conditions  are  worse  than  ever." 

One  man  wrote  to  The  Chicago  Defender 
saying:  "After  twenty  years  of  seeing  my 
people  lynched  for  any  offense  from  spitting 

1  The  Survey,  November  29,  1919. 
133 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

on  the  sidewalk  to  stealing  a  mule,  I  made 
up  my  mind  that  I  would  turn  the  prow 
of  my  ship  toward  the  part  of  the  country 
where  the  people  at  least  made  a  pretense 
at  being  civilized.  You  may  say  for  me, 
through  your  paper,  that  when  a  man's  home 
is  sacred;  when  he  can  protect  the  virtue 
of  his  wife  and  daughter  against  the  brutal 
lust  of  his  alleged  superiors;  when  he  can 
sleep  at  night  without  the  fear  of  being 
visited  by  the  Ku-Klux  Klan  because  of 
refusal  to  take  off  his  hat  while  passing  an 
overseer — then  I  will  be  willing  to  return 
to  Mississippi." 

Both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South  each 
increase  in  prosperity  of  the  Negro  made 
feeling  about  race  relations  correspondingly 
tense.  In  the  South,  as  always,  the  ten 
sity  manifested  itself  politically.  Putting  the 
Negro  into  the  army  was  fiercely  resented 
because  it  made  the  colored  soldier  an  "equal" 
of  the  white.  The  bitterness  had  its  reflex 
in  rural  districts,  where  white  determination 
stiffened  that  that  equality  should  not  extend 
beyond  the  army.  One  consequence  of  this 
tension  was  a  recrudescence  of  the  Ku-Klux 
Klan,  with  aggressive  announcements  in  the 
newspapers  calling  upon  white  men,  in  the 

134 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

familiar  language  of  the  night  riders  of  old, 
to  gather  for  the  defense  of  womanhood  and 
the  Southland.  But  colored  Americans  were 
being  taught  that  fighting  was  not  a  racial 
prerogative,  even  if  voting  was.  Their  in 
struction  was  interrupted  at  times  by  a 
propaganda  asserting  that  colored  troops 
had  failed  and  that  France  had  requested 
their  return  to  the  United  States  because 
of  sexual  crimes.  But  the  Secretary  of  War 
disposed  of  the  propaganda  by  a  vigorous 
statement  proving  its  falsity;  and  Brigadier- 
General  Sherburne  on  numerous  occasions 
publicly  praised  the  courage,  the  endurance, 
and  the  soldierly  qualities  the  colored  troops 
in  his  command  had  displayed  under  the  most 
difficult  circumstances.  The  propaganda, 
therefore,  which  became  accepted  gossip 
among  many  white  men  of  the  United  States 
army,  did  not  affect  the  Negro's  sense  of  his 
own  fitness  except  to  intensify  his  feeling  of 
the  injustice  of  the  treatment  given  him.  A 
significant  item  of  his  education  in  interna 
tional  affairs  was  the  cordiality  of  French 
people  and  its  effect  among  wrhite  people 
in  his  own  land.  Of  the  disabilities  that  were 
imposed  upon  the  Negro  in  the  army  the  list 
is  a  long  and  cruel  one.  How  color  prejudice 

135 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

worked  against  the  success  of  the  nation's 
arms  was  indicated  by  Major  J.  E.  Spingarn 
of  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces,  who 
publicly  accused  Southern  officers  with  trea 
son,  in  that  they  preferred  white  ascendancy 
in  the  army  to  the  measures  necessary  for 
efficiency  and  for  victory.  In  a  number  of 
Southern  states  the  quota  of  colored  men 
drafted  exceeded  the  white.  Thus  from  Mis 
sissippi  24,066  colored  men,  as  against  21,182 
white,  joined  the  colors;  in  South  Carolina 
25,789  colored  men,  as  against  19,909  white; 
in  Florida  12,904  colored  and  12,769  white; 
and  in  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  Louisiana  the 
quotas  of  colored  and  white  men  were  very 
nearly  equal.  Despite  the  objections  which 
the  wiiite  South  made  to  the  enlistment  and 
conscription  of  colored  men,  every  means 
was  used  to  exempt  as  few  as  possible  from 
military  service.  In  many  sections,  says  a 
former  special  assistant  to  the  Secretary  of 
War,  the  Negro  "contributed  many  more 
than  his  quota;  and,  in  defiance  of  both  the 
spirit  and  letter  of  the  draft  law,  Negro 
married  men  with  large  families  to  support 
were  impressed  into  military  service  regard 
less  of  their  protests  and  appeals,  and  their 
wives,  children,  and  dependents  suffered  un- 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

called-for  hardships.  Local  draft  boards,  in 
almost  every  instance  composed  exclusively 
of  white  men,  were  in  a  position,  if  so  inclined, 
to  show  favoritism  to  men  of  their  own  race; 
the  official  figures  of  the  draft  reveal  the  fact 
that  in  many  sections  of  the  country  exemp 
tions  were  granted  white  men  who  were  single 
with  practically  no  dependents,  \vhile  Negroes 
were  conscripted  into  service  regardless  of 
their  urgent  need  in  agriculture  or  the  essential 
industries,  and  without  considering  their  fam 
ily  relations  or  obligations."  1 

The  effect  of  excluding  colored  men  from 
draft  boards  was  made  sufficiently  clear  in  the 
first  report  of  the  Provost-Marshal-General, 
which  showed  that  of  every  100  colored  citi 
zens  called,  36  were  certified  for  service,  and  of 
every  100  \vhite  men  called,  only  25  were 
certified.  Furthermore,  of  the  registrants 
placed  in  Class  I  of  the  draft,  colored  men 
contributed  51.65  per  cent,  of  their  registrants 
as  against  32.53  per  cent,  of  the  white.  The 
Negro,  Mr.  Scott  continues,  "had  practically 
no  representation  upon  the  draft  boards 
which  passed  upon  his  appeals — an  arrange 
ment  which  was  wholly  at  variance  with  the 
theory  of  American  institutions." 

1  Emraett  J.  Scott,  The  American  Negro  in  the  World  War,  p.  428. 
137 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

The  record  of  the  injustice  and  brutality 
of  which  the  Negro  was  made  a  victim  in  the 
United  States  army  is  too  long  even  for 
summary  treatment.  Commanded  as  colored 
soldiers  were,  for  the  most  part,  by  white 
officers  and  non-commissioned  officers,  mem 
bers  of  their  own  race  being  with  few  excep 
tions  denied  promotion,  they  were  domineered 
over  and  insulted.  Every  sort  of  hardship 
was  visited  upon  even  the  most  capable  of 
the  comparatively  few  colored  officers  com 
missioned.  The  ranking  colored  officer  of 
the  United  States  army,  who  was  subse 
quently  sent  as  military  attache  to  Liberia, 
spoke  of  the  unremitting  efforts  that  were 
made  to  discredit  and  humiliate  the  black 
officer  before  the  world  and  before  his  men. 
In  every  way  possible  colored  soldiers  and 
their  officers  in  France  were  discriminated 
against.  Thus,  General  Erwin,  commanding 
the  9£d  Division,  is  reported  to  have  issued 
"Order  No.  40,"  that  Negroes  should  not 
speak  to  Frenchwomen.  "Carrying  out  this 
order,"  says  Mr.  Scott,  "the  military  police 
overseas  undertook  to  arrest  Negroes  found 
talking  to  Frenchwomen,  while  the  white  pri 
vates  and  officers  were  not  molested.  This 
led  to  a  serious  misunderstanding  between 

138 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

the  French  and  the  Americans  and  to  a 
number  of  brawls  in  which  the  white  and 
black  soldiers  participated." 

Propaganda  by  white  Americans  to  dis 
credit  their  colored  brothers  in  arms  even 
went  to  the  length  of  a  secret  communication 
to  French  officers  and  civilians,  issued  from 
General  Pershing's  headquarters,  warning 
them  against  treating  "the  Negro  with  famil 
iarity  and  indulgence,"  the  French  public 
not  having  become  aware  of  the  "menace 
of  degeneracy"  which  had  created  an  impas 
sable  "gulf"  in  the  United  States  between 
races.  American  opinion  is  represented  as  the 
being  unanimous  in  regarding  the  black  man 
"as  an  inferior  being  with  whom  relations 
of  business  or  service  only  are  possible." 
The  Negro's  vices,  this  astonishing  document 
says,  "are  a  constant  menace  to  the  American, 
who  has  to  repress  them  sternly."  Warning 
is  given  against  "the  rise  of  any  pronounced 
degree  of  intimacy  between  French  officers 
and  black  officers.  .  .  .  We  must  not  eat 
with  them,  must  not  shake  hands  or  seek 
to  talk  or  meet  with  them  outside  of  the 
requirements  of  military  service." 

Also,  French  people  "must  not  commend 
too  highly  the  black  American  troops,  particu- 

139 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

larly  in  the  presence  of  white  Americans." 
"French  officers  and  French  civilians,"  says 
Mr.  Scott,  "as  a  rule,  could  not  understand 
why  the  black  soldiers  should  not  be  treated 
identically  as  white  American  soldiers;  when 
French  officers  were  alone  with  Negro  officers 
the  latter  were  treated  with  the  utmost 
friendliness  and  consideration,  and  it  was  only 
when  in  the  presence  of  American  officers 
that  they  reluctantly  observed  the  official 
order,  inspired  by  race  prejudice."  Much 
matter  has  been  published  showing  that  white 
commanders  made  repeated  and  insistent 
requests  that  colored  officers  be  removed. 
Colored  soldiers  had,  like  colored  laborers 
in  civil  life,  to  do  the  hardest  and  most  dis 
agreeable  work  of  the  army.  They  were 
assigned  to  coaling  and  stevedore  duty  fre 
quently  under  imputation  of  lack  of  courage 
or  ability.  One  Negro  officer,  at  the  close 
of  a  letter  setting  forth  the  difficulties  he 
had  had  to  endure,  remarked: 

"I  am  beginning  to  wonder  whether  it  will 
ever  be  possible  for  me  to  see  an  American 
white  without  wishing  that  he  were  in  his 
Satanic  Majesty's  private  domain.  I  must 
pray  long  and  earnestly  that  hatred  of  my 
fellow-man  be  removed  from  my  heart  and 

140 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

that  I  can  truthfully  lay  claim  to  being  a 
Christian." 

On  the  civilian  Negro,  as  well  as  on  the 
colored  soldier,  the  requirements  of  war  were 
frequently  made  to  bear  with  exceptional 
rigor.  A  survey  of  compulsory  work  laws 
and  their  enforcement  led  the  investigator 
to  conclude  that  "many  employers  of  Negro 
labor  in  the  South  utilized  the  national 
emergency  to  force  Negroes  into  a  condition 
which  bordered  virtually  on  peonage.  .  .  . 
No  one,"  he  adds,  "can  tell  how  far  the  sys 
tem  extended,  as  most  of  the  offenses  occurred 
in  the  smaller  towns  and  communities  where 
Negroes  dare  not  reveal  the  true  conditions  for 
fear  of  punishment,  a  fear  which  is  well  founded, 
as  the  lynching  record  of  1918  will  testify."  l 
It  would  be  idle  to  pretend  that  disillusion 
and  bitterness  did  not  follow  in  the  wake 
of  the  military  and  civilian  discrimination 
against  the  Negro.  For  the  most  part  it  was 
expressed  in  migration  of  colored  people 
from  the  South.  Unquestionably  it  found 
vent  in  the  violence  and  the  riots  that  made 
melodrama  of  race  relations  during  the  war, 
but  especially  in  1919.  Never  before  to 
such  an  extent  had  the  Negro  fought  back  to 

1  Walter  F,  White,  The  New  Republic,  March  1.  1919. 
141 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

repel  white  mobs  as  in  Washington  and 
Chicago.  Hounded  in  the  South,  denied 
protection,  whether  from  labor  unions  or 
from  city  officers  in  the  North,  the  Negro 
armed  himself.  A  condition  for  which  white 
Americans  were  primarily  to  blame  was 
laid  at  the  door  of  the  Negro.  The  most 
fantastic  stories  emanated  from  Washington, 
especially  from  Representative  Byrnes  of 
South  Carolina  and  other  Southern  members 
of  the  House,  later  from  the  Department  of 
Justice. 

The  Lusk  Investigating  Committee  of  New 
York  State  made  the  alarming  discovery  that 
Socialists  were  actually  trying  to  "convert" 
colored  men  to  Socialism.  Editorial  comment 
of  the  less  windy  sort  was  represented  by 
The  Springfield  Republican,  which,  adverting 
to  the  Lusk  Committee's  discovery  of  the 
plan  to  "convert"  Negroes,  remarked:  "If 
there  was  anything  unlawful  in  such  a  pro 
gram — assuming  of  course  that  no  violence 
was  to  be  preached — we  fail  to  see  it.  But 
the  Lusk  Committee  '  expressed  amazement,' 
and  Senator  Lusk  said  that  he  regarded  this 
evidence  of  a  detailed  plan  for  the  spreading 
of  *  Bolshevist'  propaganda  among  Negroes 
in  the  South  as  the  greatest  menace  the 

142 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

evidence  before  the  committee  so  far  had 
disclosed.  The  grim  irony  of  the  situation  is 
that  the  very  first  point  in  the  plan  was  that 
'all  acts  of  injustice  to  the  Negro'  were  to  be 
condemned.  Perhaps  that  is  revolutionary! 
God  save  America  if  it  is!" 

"Reds  Try  to  Stir  Negroes  to  Revolt" 
announced  The  New  York  Times  in  July,  1919, 
and  a  few  days  later,  "Radicals  Inciting 
Negro  to  Violence."  "Negroes  of  World 
Prey  to  Agitators,"  said  a  Times  scarehead 
in  August,  and  The  New  York  Tribune  an 
nounced  a  few  days  later  a  "Plot  to  Stir 
Race  Antagonism  in  United  States  Charged 
to  Soviets."  Officers  of  the  Department  of 
Justice  were  quoted  as  saying  that  "charges 
of  an  organized  propaganda  made  in  the 
House  yesterday  by  Representative  Byrnes, 
Democrat,  of  South  Carolina,  seemed  to  be 
well  founded.  .  .  .  Agents  of  the  Department 
of  Justice  are  investigating.  Facts  thus  far 
developed  lead  officials  to  believe  that  I.  W.  W. 
and  Soviet  influences  were  at  the  bottom 
of  the  recent  race  riots  in  Washington  and 
Chicago."  "United  States  Reveals  Sedition 
among  Negro  Masses,"  said  the  caption  of 
an  article  widely  distributed  over  the  country 
under  the  signature  of  David  Lawrence,  and 

143 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

"Radicalism  among  Negroes  Growing,  United 
Stales  Record  Shows,"  announced  The  New 
York  World  in  November  of  1919.  Despite 
the  hysterical  newsmongering  inspired  by 
Southern  representatives,  to  which  the  Depart 
ment  of  Justice  was  made  a  party,  no  connec 
tion  between  Russian  or  any  other  Soviet  and 
Negro  citizens  of  the  United  States  was  ever 
publicly  established.  Not  enough  evidence 
was  accumulated  by  the  loquacious  investiga 
tors  of  the  Department  of  Justice  and  their 
garrulous  chief  to  procure  the  indictment 
of  a  single  Negro  of  importance  in  the  United 
States.  They  did  succeed,  however,  in  spread 
ing  a  poisonous  mass  of  misinformation  and 
distrust.  So  persistent  was  the  campaign 
of  calumny  that  a  group  of  colored  editors 
were  finally  moved  to  appeal  to  the  Attorney 
General  to  lay  open  before  the  country  the 
basis  for  his  insinuations  or  else  to  cease  his 
propaganda.  A  letter  from  them  to  the 
Attorney  General,  widely  published  in  the 
Negro  press,  stated  that  in  the  nation-wide 
campaign  against  "Reds  and  I.  W.  W. 
agitators"  not  a  single  colored  person  of  the 
United  States  had,  to  their  knowledge,  been 
arrested.  Colored  people,  said  the  letter, 
would  continue  to  demand  every  right  of 

144 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

American  citizenship  under  the  Constitution. 
"These  things  colored  people  are  agitating 
in  the  right  way  and  with  the  proper  spirit. 
There  is  an  exceedingly  small  percentage  of 
radical  colored  newspapers  among  us,  and  for 
that  reason  the  colored  press  as  a  whole 
should  not  be  labeled  as  radical,  and  should 
not  be  classified  with  the  Reds  and  I.  W.  W.'s." 
It  will  be  remarked  that  the  South's  color 
psychosis  became  extended,  during  the  war, 
throughout  the  nation,  not  in  virtue  of 
justifying  fact,  but  chiefly  through  a  press 
campaign  initiated  by  a  Southern  member  of 
the  House  of  Representatives.  The  conserva 
tive  press  treated  the  Negro  very  much  as  an 
alien  enemy.  His  grievances  were  ignored. 
Numerous  articles  were  published  to  establish 
how  well  the  Negro  was  treated  in  Mississippi, 
how  prosperous  colored  people  were  in  Louis 
iana,  how  the  South  wanted  colored  workers 
to  return  from  the  North.  But  the  migration 
northward  was  continued  at  the  very  time 
these  inspired  stories  were  appearing  in  North 
ern  newspapers. 

Although  intelligent  white  Americans  did 
not  take  seriously  the  innuendoes  published 
by  the  Attorney  General  and  the  Depart 
ment  of  Justice,  propaganda  charging  the 

10  145 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Negro  with  "sedition"  and  "radicalism" 
was  undoubtedly  contributory  to  violent  feel 
ing  and  to  conflict.  The  result  was  a  pre 
sumption  against  colored  people  in  the  United 
States  most  oppressive  as  always  to  the  more 
prosperous  and  intelligent  men  and  women. 
The  report  of  the  Department  of  Justice, 
which  was  transmitted  to  the  Senate  in 
November,  1919,  included  a  number  of  pages 
devoted  to  Negro  magazines  and  newspapers. 
Editorial  utterances  had  become  more  acid 
and  more  incisive  since  the  war.  The  At 
torney  General  spoke  of  "sedition"  and 
"radicalism,"  but  he  failed  to  prosecute.  In 
fact,  Negro  editors  were  guilty,  not  of  sedition, 
but  of  indignation  at  brutalities  and  wrongs 
which  the  nation  unprotesting  had  permitted 
to  go  on.  The  Attorney  General  found, 
what  every  student  of  race  relations  might 
have  told  him  he  would  find,  "the  increasingly 
emphasized  feeling  of  a  race  consciousness" 
among  colored  people.  That  the  Attorney 
General  characterized  this  race  feeling  as 
"openly,  defiantly  assertive  of  its  ow^n  equal 
ity"  is  a  commentary  on  his  state  of  mind 
rather  than  on  the  facts.  Throughout  the 
Negro  press,  as  among  orators  and  the  masses 

of  workmen  and  the  bourgeoisie,  realization 

us 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

had  come  that  the  "old  Negro"  was  going 
never  to  return.  Servility  and  submission  to 
wrong  had  been  proved  experimentally  to  be 
poor  policy.  Those  Negroes  who  followed 
the  prescription  which  Booker  Washington 
had  offered — work  and  thrift  as  opposed  to 
political  and  civil  demands — found  that  their 
work  and  their  merit,  whether  its  measure 
was  financial  or  social,  availed  them  little. 
They  found  class  discrimination  increasing, 
and  moderate  and  intelligent  white  men 
less  than  ever  able,  apparently,  to  check  the 
lawlessness  represented  in  lynching  and  intimi 
dation  of  every  sort.  Colored  men  found  that 
the  "good  nigger"  who  bowed  to  white 
ascendancy  and  took  orders  uncomplainingly 
was  eventually  despoiled.  The  Negro  who 
stood  his  ground  and  cleaved  to  his  rights 
with  his  manhood  and  a  rifle  to  defend  him 
often  won  the  respect  if  not  the  affection  of 
his  white  neighbors.  "Shoot  Back  to  Stop 
Riots"  is  The  Boston  Herald's  caption  sum 
marizing  advice  given  to  colored  people  by 
one  of  their  leaders  in  November  of  1919. 
It  is  the  sort  of  advice  with  which  they  had 
been  becoming  increasingly  familiar  and  had 
found  in  practice  most  effective. 

When  the  division  brought  about  by  the 

147 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

war  became  sharp,  the  occasional  friend  of 
the  Negro,  the  Republican  party,  again  began 
to  withdraw.  The  Negro  confronted  the 
Democratic  party  which,  no  matter  what 
liberal  impulses  it  might  derive  from  the 
North,  would  never  help  him  in  the  South. 
The  Southern  Republican  party  was,  as 
always,  rent  into  two  factions  of  which  one 
was  composed  of  "lily-white"  Republicans 
who  sought  to  curry  favor  with  the  white 
South  by  repudiating  the  Negro,  and  a  lean 
faction  which,  in  order  to  obtain  offices  under 
Republican  National  administrations,  sought 
to  maintain  its  influence  over  the  colored 
voter.  Politically,  therefore,  the  Negro  was 
without  real  friends.  The  period  of  the 
World  War  and  1919  especially,  perhaps, 
became  an  era  of  change  for  colored  Ameri 
cans,  who  then  came  to  realize  as  never 
before  that  only  by  themselves  organizing, 
by  defending  themselves  personally,  politi 
cally,  and  industrially,  could  their  position 
in  the  United  States  be  made  tolerable. 
Colored  workers,  it  will  be  shown  in  a  later 
chapter,  acted  independently  of  white  labor 
organizations  and  were  mostly  victims,  partly 
players,  in  the  contest  between  capital  and 
labor.  The  character  of  riots  changed  in 

148 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

1919.  They  were  not  massacres  of  colored 
people.  White  men  died.  In  a  number  of 
cities  in  which  riots  had  been  planned,  notably 
in  Memphis,  Tennessee,  and  in  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  they  did  not  occur  because  it  was 
generally  known  that  colored  men  w^ere  armed 
and  were  prepared  to  defend  themselves. 

The  change,  for  the  most  part  industrial, 
which  the  war  effected  in  the  South  was  in 
many  respects  a  revolution.  It  was  hardly 
more  difficult  for  the  South  to  face  political 
emancipation  of  the  Negro  than  to  contem 
plate  his  industrial  emancipation.  Both  were 
brought  in  view  by  war  industry  and  war 
migration.  That  the  war  should  at  once 
make  the  Negro  conscious  of  his  prerogatives 
as  a  citizen,  give  him  opportunity  to  earn 
the  gratitude  of  the  nation,  make  for  him 
preferred  opportunities  as  a  skilled  workman, 
and  enable  him  to  leave  the  agricultural 
communities  in  which  he  was  most  con- 
sciencelessly  exploited,  was  bitter. 

"One  of  the  most  serious  of  the  long-stand 
ing  grievances  of  the  Negro,"  says  the  Labor 
Department's  report  on  the  migration  of 
1916-17,  "is  the  small  pay  he  receives  for  his 
work  in  the  South." 

The  South's  first  response  to  the  migration 

149 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

included  attempts  to  stop  it  by  heavily  fining 
and  imprisoning  labor  agents,  by  intimidation 
of  Negro  migrants  at  railway  stations,  forcing 
many  a  colored  farm  tenant  to  flee  by  night 
in  order  to  come  North.  Gradually  it  was 
realized  that  the  competition  of  Northern 
industry,  with  its  comparatively  lavish  wages, 
would  have  to  be  met.  It  also  came  to  be 
understood  that  Negroes  would  go  where 
their  children  might  have  the  advantages  of 
schooling.  It  was  found  that  the  migration 
was  least  from  the  districts  in  which  there 
was  110  lynching  and  mobbism,  where  Negroes 
were  permitted  to  enjoy  the  products  of  their 
labor  in  peace.  The  elaborate  propaganda, 
directed  chiefly  at  Negro  migrants  in  Chicago, 
describing  the  prosperity  and  contentment 
of  colored  people  in  Louisiana,  Texas,  and 
Mississippi,  was  a  measure  of  this  under 
standing.  As  Mr.  Hill  has  shown,  all  too 
frequently  the  news  stories  represented  a 
desirable  rather  than  an  actual  state  of  affairs. 
But  a  general  realization  by  white  men  that 
the  Negro  must  be  satisfied  in  order  to  keep 
him  on  the  land,  that  elements  in  that  satis 
faction  are  education  for  his  children,  human 
and  decent  treatment,  and  eventually  even 
that  most  taboo  instrument,  the  vote,  is  a 

150 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

long  step  toward  progress  in  the  administration 
of  race  relations.  The  war,  which  first  gave 
the  South  opportunities  to  exploit  Negro 
labor  by  enactment  and  enforcement  of  "work 
or  fight"  laws,  provided  the  Negro  with 
opportunity  for  bringing  his  exploiters  to 
their  senses. 

If  the  war  made  the  white  South  more  than 
ever  determined  to  show  the  Negro  "his 
place"  when  he  came  home  from  the  war 
and  from  "Frenchwomen,"  it  made  the  Negro 
more  politically  self-conscious  than  ever  before 
in  his  history  in  this  country.  He  came  to 
look  critically  upon  his  erstwhile  friends,  the 
Republicans.  He  began  to  break  the  mold 
of  his  former  undeviating  allegiance  in  order 
to  listen  to  Socialist,  class-conscious  propa 
ganda.  He  found  himself  spoken  of  as  a 
race,  treated  as  a  political  entity  within  the 
United  States,  and  consequently  he  began 
to  feel  the  intensified  race  consciousness  of 
which  the  Attorney  General  made  mention. 
The  Negro  citizen's  weapon  against  dis 
crimination  of  every  sort  was  his  economic 
value.  His  departure  became  a  grave  menace 
to  the  welfare  and  even  the  solvency  of  many 
portions  of  the  rural  South.  His  arrival  in 
the  North  increased  the  hostility  of  trade- 

151 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

union  members,  but  caused  the  union  execu 
tives  seriously  to  ponder  the  effect  of  excluding 
him.  However  he  was  treated,  his  strategic 
position  was  improved.  That  is  not  to  be 
taken  as  a  step  in  the  harmonizing  of  race 
relations.  Eventually  it  may  mean  that  in 
the  period  of  the  war  the  problem  of  the  liv 
ing  together  in  the  same  state  of  colored 
and  white  men  was  made  immensely  more 
urgent  and  more  menacing.  The  Negro's 
political  education,  given  an  enormous  im 
petus  by  his  war  experience,  is  being  carried 
forward.  Never  before  particularly  concerned 
in  the  doctrine  of  class  struggle,  he  is  having 
it  preached  to  him  by  his  own  newspapers 
and  magazines  which  are  quick  to  seize  upon 
the  economic  motives  of  his  detractors  and 
exploiters.  His  own  experience  supplies  many 
examples  to  supplement  the  arguments  of  his 
mentors. 

Any  colored  person  of  intelligence  neces 
sarily  began  to  analyze  his  condition  in  times 
as  disturbed  and  as  disturbing  as  those 
during  and  immediately  following  the  war. 
To  both  white  men  and  colored  men  the  war 
demonstrated  that  the  Negro  has  an  economic 
place  in  this  country  if  he  is  allowed  to  occupy 
it;  that  his  departure  in  large  numbers  from 

152 


CERTAIN  EFFECTS  OF  WAR 

the  land  in  the  South  means  loss  in  values  and 
in  productivity;  that  he  is  adaptable  to 
industry  in  the  North;  that  he  must  be 
considered  as  an  element  in  the  industrial 
struggle  of  capital  and  labor;  and  that  in 
many  a  Northern  city  and  state  class-con 
scious  or  race-conscious  appeals  to  groups  of 
white  men  will  be  met  with  the  ballot  by 
large  and  increasingly  well-organized  groups 
of  colored  people,  whose  vigilant  press  keeps 
them  informed  of  what  affects  their  welfare. 
The  foregoing  summary,  like  all  summaries,  is 
over-simplified.  It  will  be  shown  in  subse 
quent  chapters  that  in  many  localities  the 
Negro  is  still  treated  with  greater  disregard 
and  brutality  than  in  slavery  days;  that  his 
oppression  cries  to  all  Americans  for  denuncia 
tion  and  redress.  But  the  way  of  hatred 
cannot  stop  the  new  emancipation  which  the 
war  enormously  accelerated.  At  most  and 
at  worst  a  policy  of  repression,  misinformation, 
and  exploitation  can  bring  about  irrecon 
cilable  conflict  and  tragedy  for  colored  and 
white  citizens  who  might  otherwise  become 
immensely  useful  to  one  another.  The  old 
anomalies  persist.  The  United  States  is  still 
in  the  position  internationally  of  a  kettle 
when  it  comes  to  calling  pots  black.  The 

153 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

South  still  openly,  boastingly  even,  dis 
franchises  colored  citizens.  And  democracy 
is  made  in  the  eyes  of  the  discerning  to  seem 
far  more  tentative  in  the  face  of  race  problems 
than  its  loudest  protagonists  would  have  it 
thought. 


VI 

THE   SCAPEGOAT   OF   CITY   POLITICS 

TT  is  in  the  cities  that  race  relations  are 
*  most  poisoned  by  rumor  and  myth.  No 
group  in  the  nation  has  paid  a  heavier  toll  to 
corrupt  municipal  politics  than  the  Negro. 
He  has  paid  it  not  only  in  bad  housing, 
inferior  schools,  poor  lighting,  paving,  and 
policing.  He  has,  besides,  been  used  as  a 
tool  in  elections  and  as  a  lightning-rod  to 
carry  off  angers  for  which  he  was  not  in  the 
remotest  degree  responsible.  During  the  period 
of  acute  change  that  accompanied  and 
followed  the  migration  northward,  the  use 
of  the  Negro  politically  and  deliberate  at 
tempts  to  foment  race  riots  of  magnitude 
were  established  beyond  doubt.  Many  ele 
ments  contributed  to  the  disorders  in  Wash 
ington,  in  Chicago,  in  Omaha,  and  in  Knox- 
ville.  To  say  they  were  due  to  any  one 
cause  would  be  to  over-simplify.  But  that  a 
major  part  was  played  by  motives  and  con- 

155 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

tests  outside  the  control  of  colored  people  is 
incontestable. 

In  three  of  the  four  cities  the  riots  were  pre 
ceded  by  a  press  campaign  in  which  Negro 
criminality  stared  every  newspaper  reader 
in  the  eye,  in  the  form  of  glaring  head-lines 
announcing  cases  of  assault  and  robbery. 
This  was  true  of  Washington,  Chicago,  and 
Omaha.  In  two  of  those  cities,  Washington 
and  Omaha,  bodies  of  colored  people  met  and 
sent  appeals  to  the  newspapers  to  desist 
from  their  dangerous  and  inflammatory  cam 
paign.  Omaha's  riot,  in  the  course  of  which 
a  colored  man  was  without  trial  shot,  hanged, 
and  publicly  roasted  in  a  city  street,  the 
mayor  hanged  until  he  was  nearly  dead,  the 
court-house  gutted  and  burned  and  irreplace 
able  records  destroyed,  occurred  on  Septem 
ber  28,  1919.  On  the  12th  of  April,  six 
hundred  members  of  the  Omaha  branch  of  the 
National  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Colored  People  had  met  at  the  Zion  Baptist 
Church  to  protest  careless  remarks  of  the 
Omaha  chief  of  police  and  the  press  campaign. 
The  meeting  deplored  "published  cases  of 
criminal  acts  alleged  to  have  been  committed 
by  colored  men,"  called  attention  to  the 
emphasis  which  was  put  on  the  race  of  of- 

156 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

fenders,  and  urged  "that  the  public  press 
be  called  upon  and  requested  to  avoid  creating 
a  sentiment  against  the  race  by  using  in 
glaring  and  sensational  head-lines  expressions 
of  special  reference  to  the  race."  The  resolu 
tions  were  sent  to  the  chief  of  police  of  Omaha 
and  to  the  principal  newspapers.  A  similar 
appeal  was  sent  to  newspaper  editors  in 
Washington,  District  of  Columbia.  In  Sep 
tember  the  campaign  which  the  press  of 
Omaha  had  carried  on  despite  all  warnings  bore 
fruit. 

"Jail  Burns  in  Omaha  as  Riot  Rages — 
City  in  Tumult,  Police  Helpless  as  Result 
of  Attempt  to  Lynch  Negro  Who  Attacked 
Girl — Mob  Slashes  Hose;  Prisoners  in  Peril — 
One  Man  Killed  and  Two  Wounded — Colored 
Men  on  Streets  Are  Beaten." 

The  captions  on  news  stories  sent  broadcast 
over  the  nation  told  the  story  of  what  had 
happened  on  September  28th.  "Race  Riots 
in  Washington  Serious — Blacks  Chased  by 
Mobs  Past  White  House— More  Than  One 
Hundred  Badly  Injured — Ambulances  Busy 
All  Night — Police  Unequal  to  Situation — 
Marshall  and  Members  of  Congress  Urge 
Use  of  Army  to  Restore  Order."  This  was 
the  story  which  the  captions  had  told  of  the 

157 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

National  Capital  on  July  20th  and  21st. 
With  minor  variants,  the  stories  were  similar: 
a  record  of  mobbism  in  the  streets  of  American 
cities,  houses  burned;  citizens  done  to  death, 
the  police  helpless  and  troops  enforcing  order 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  What  the  news 
stories  did  not  tell,  and  never  told,  was  what 
had  occurred  in  the  months  and  years  pre 
ceding  to  bring  such  conditions  to  pass. 
Reference  was  invariably  made  at  the  time 
of  riots  to  the  "increase  in  crime,"  to  "attacks 
upon  women,  murders,  holdups,  and  rob 
beries"  as  being  the  cause  of  the  disorder. 
Yet  the  records  of  the  chief  of  police  in 
Washington  failed  to  show  the  "many  assaults 
upon  women"  that  the  newspapers  had  been 
using  to  create  a  condition  of  hysteria.  His 
statistics  showed  four  assaults  upon  women 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  in  June  and  July, 
of  which  three  were  attributed  to  a  suspect 
under  arrest  at  the  time  of  the  riots. 

A  typical  example  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  Negro  was  victimized  by  the  press  of 
Washington  occurred  on  August  15th,  at  a 
time  when  the  memory  of  the  July  riots 
should  have  suggested  caution.  On  its  front 
page  The  Washington  Post  carried  the  caption : 
"Attacked  by  Negroes — Mrs.  Minnie  Frank- 

158 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

lin  Injured  at  League  Park  Carnival — Two 
Assailants  Get  Away."  There  followed  ac 
counts  of  headquarters  detectives  searching 
for  "two  young  Negroes"  who  had  "covered" 
the  woman  with  a  pistol  during  the  attack. 
On  the  following  day,  inconspicuously,  on  an 
inside  page,  The  Washington  Post  retracted 
its  glaring  assertions  of  the  day  before  with: 
"Calls  Assault  a  'Story'— Mrs.  Franklin's 
Charge  Against  Two  Negroes  Dropped  by 
Police."  And  it  was  developed  that  her 
narrative  of  the  attack  was  a  "fabrication." 
But  the  effect  of  the  glaring  scarehead  of  the 
day  before  could  not  be  nullified  and  no 
attempt  was  made  by  The  Washington  Post 
to  nullify  it. 

Of  the  Omaha  press  campaign  before  the 
disorders,  a  report  by  the  National  Associa 
tion  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People 
said:  "Every  few  days  the  papers  head-line, 
'  Negro  Has  Assaulted  a  White  Woman.'  When 
investigated  no  truth  is  found  in  these  state 
ments.  But  raids  follow  and  it  keeps  the 
branch  busy  seeing  that  the  Negroes  picked 
up  in  these  raids  are  not  treated  unjustly. 
We  have  one  case  in  particular  in  which  we 
won  a  decided  victory.  A  sixteen-year-old 
white  girl  claimed  to  have  been  assaulted 

159 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

by  a  Negro.  For  many  weeks  she  refused 
to  identify  any  of  the  Negroes  brought  before 
her.  One  day  she  saw  on  the  street  a  man 
who  fully  answered  the  description  of  her 
assailant.  She  called  the  officer  and  had 
him  arrested.  Our  committee  happened  to 
be  in  court  on  the  day  that  he  was  brought 
in.  The  judge  wanted  to  have  his  hearing 
right  then  without  giving  him  a  chance  to 
prove  his  whereabouts  on  that  date,  but  the 
lawyer  insisted  that  he  be  given  a  chance. 
His  trial  was  stayed  one  week.  We  sent 
telegrams  to  the  men  for  whom  he  had  worked 
and  they  answered  as  to  his  character;  the 
foreman  of  the  section  gang  with  which  he 
was  working  on  the  date  of  the  alleged  assault 
wired,  proving  an  alibi,  but  the  judge  would 
not  receive  that  as  evidence.  Then  the  fore 
man  came,  bringing  with  him  his  time-books, 
which  had  been  sent  to  Chicago  and  O.K.'d. 
By  this  means  we  proved  the  man  innocent 
because  he  had  been  over  a  hundred  miles 
away  from  the  scene  of  the  crime  at  the 
time  it  was  said  to  have  been  committed." 
Another  report  describes  the  occurrences 
which  wrere  magnified  by  the  newspapers  into 
"Negro  Assaults  upon  White  Women":  "In 
the  case  of  a  boy  who  was  given  ninety  days," 

160 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

says  the  secretary  of  the  Omaha  branch  of 
the  association,  "I  was  in  court  at  the  time 
of  the  trial.  The  little  girl  says  the  boy  went 
past  her  and  pulled  her  dress  and  she  ran. 
The  boy  was  seventeen  years  old.  That 
was  criminal  assault. 

"I  have  been  at  the  trial  of  every  case  and 
the  evidence  is  about  as  flimsy.  One  woman 
said  that  a  Negro  walked  fast  behind  her. 
She  called  the  police  and  he  was  charged 
with  criminal  assault.  In  the  prison  with 
the  man  who  was  lynched  Sunday  was  a 
white  man  under  bond  for  the  same  crime. 
If  they  were  so  eager  to  protect  white  woman 
hood  they  should  have  completed  their  work 
by  taking  him."  These  examples,  which  could 
be  added  to  indefinitely,  indicate  the  pro 
cedure.  The  Negro  was  to  be  tarred  with  the 
odium  which  is  his  in  the  South.  "Rapist" 
was  to  be  fastened  as  a  distinguishing  char 
acter  to  his  color.  Presumption  so  strong 
that  it  affected  judges  on  the  bench  was 
created  against  accused  Negroes.  Not  only 
was  the  Southern  myth  to  take  root  in  the 
North.  It  was  so  to  affect  race  relations 
that  colored  people  would  be  glad  to  return 
to  the  South  whence  they  had  come.  Hence, 
after  the  Chicago  riots  the  propaganda  of 

11  161 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

improved  conditions  and  prosperity  in  Lou 
isiana  and  Mississippi.  Hence  the  committees 
of  white  men  to  induce  colored  men  to  go 
South  where  they  "belonged." 

But  it  is  the  involvement  of  this  propa 
ganda  in  municipal  politics  that  is  to  be 
shown.  Nowhere  was  it  clearer  than  in 
Omaha.  As  the  presentation  is  one  of  fact, 
I  make  no  apology  for  quoting  at  length  and 
corroborating  the  report  of  a  man  long  identi 
fied  with  "reform"  of  Omaha's  city  govern 
ment.  "There  were  many  causes  back  of  the 
riot  in  Omaha  Sunday  night,  September  28th," 
he  says.  "For  forty  years  Omaha  was  ruled 
by  a  political  criminal  gang  that  was  perhaps 
the  most  lawless  of  any  city  of  its  size  in 
the  civilized  world.  There  had  grown  up 
during  that  period  a  powerful  group  that 
lived  on  the  proceeds  of  organized  vice  and 
crime."  The  writer  enumerates  three  hun 
dred  and  eighty-four  houses  of  prostitution, 
saloons,  and  pool  halls,  and  includes  in  the 
group  "organized  bank  robbers,  organized 
highway  robbers,  and  professional  'con'  men 
and  burglars" — a  list  incredible  to  any  one 
unfamiliar  with  the  vagaries  of  American 
city  government.  This  group  decided  in 
conference  on  the  city  officers  to  be  elected, 

162 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

"and  they  would  give  the  Boss  for  his  service 
a  certain  sum  of  money  and  control  of  the 
vice  interests,  the  police  department,  the 
police  court,  the  juries,  and  then  proceed  to 
elect  public  officials."  This  condition  pre 
vailed  without  interruption  until  1908.  In 
that  year  an  eight-o'clock-closing  law  was 
enacted  for  saloons  and  subsequently  a  jury- 
commissioner  law  and  election-machinery 
law,  taking  both  out  of  control  of  the  "vice 
ring."  State-wide  prohibition  was  enacted 
in  Nebraska  in  1916.  "In  the  spring  of  1918, 
with  the  power  of  the  vice  ring  thus  weakened 
by  the  advances  noted,  the  old  political  gang 
was  almost  destroyed.  Thus  we  had  elimi 
nated  the  whisky  interests  .  .  .  but  we  had 
not  eliminated  all  of  the  gang.  There  was 

still  left   The  Omaha ,*  which  had  been 

the  mouthpiece  of  the  vice  ring.  ..."  The 
remnants  of  former  corrupt  government  com 
bined  "to  destroy  the  present  city  adminis 
tration  and  regain  control  of  the  police  de 
partment.  ...  In  order  to  accomplish 
this,  the  paper,  assisted  at  times  by  the  two 
other  daily  papers,  began  a  campaign  of 
slander  and  vituperation  against  the  police 
department  of  the  city  of  Omaha,  and  in 

*A  newspaper. 
163 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

order  to  make  it  effective  they  chose  a  line  of 
propaganda  to  the  effect  that  Negro  men 
were  attacking  white  women,  assaulting  them 
with  intent  to  commit  rape  and  actually 
committing  rape,  with  the  connivance  of  the 
police  department.  They  made  a  majority 
of  the  people  of  Omaha  believe  that  all 
Negro  men  were  disposed  to  commit  the  crime 
of  rape  on  white  women."  Attention  of  the 
mayor  and  the  commissioner  and  chief  of 
police  was  called  to  the  association  of  lewd 
white  women  with  colored  men,  and  city 
officers  were  asked  to  get  rid  of  both  elements 
"for  the  safety  of  the  colored  people  and  the 
community."  Police  raids  stimulated  the 
press  campaign  against  the  administration, 
and  the  impression  was  created  that  the  police 
were  invading  private  residences  without 
warrant  and  were  arresting  law-abiding  citi 
zens.  The  difficulties  of  the  administration 
were  intensified  by  remnants  in  the  police 
department  of  adherents  of  the  old  vice 
ring,  who  "were  doing  everything  within 
their  power  to  hamper  and  discredit  the 
honest  efforts  of  the  present  city  adminis 
tration  to  enforce  the  law."  The  statement 
of  Omaha's  chief  of  police  as  to  the  com 
position  of  the  mob,  quoted  in  an  earlier 

164 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

chapter,  is  borne  out  by  this  citizen,  who  says 
there  was  "in  connection  with  the  mob, 
fathered  by  these  same  influences,  an  organized 
gang  determined  to  wreck  the  administration 
at  any  cost,  and  they  deliberately  organized 
a  mob,  furnished  it  with  money  and  liquor, 
and  the  leaders  of  the  old  vice  ring  stood 
round  in  the  mob  urging  the  men  to  go  in 
and  assist  in  wrecking  the  court-house,  lynch 
the  Negro,  and  kill  the  mayor  of  the  city, 
the  commissioner  of  police,  one  of  the  police 
magistrates,  and  the  morals  squad,  a  group 
of  detectives  that  had  been  relentless  in 
enforcing  the  law  against  the  criminal  ele 
ment."  A  police  captain,  the  senior  in  the 
police  department,  who  released  fifty  police 
officers  on  the  afternoon  of  the  riotous  Sun 
day  and  sent  them  to  their  homes,  is  described 
as  "a  member  of  the  old  criminal  gang" 
who  had  "served  as  a  personal  bodyguard, 
with  another  crooked  police  officer,  to  the 
'boss'  of  the  underworld."  Some  of  the 
police  officers  were  said  to  be  in  the  mob 
encouraging  attacks  upon  colored  police  offi 
cers  who  were  endeavoring  to  maintain  order. 
"The  only  reason  the  commissioner  of  police 
escaped  was  because,  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  mayor  and  others,  he  was  sufficiently 

165 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

disguised  in  his  appearance  to  get  out  of  the 
jail  without  being  killed  by  the  mob."  The 
innocence  is  asserted  of  the  Negro,  William 
Brown,  who  was  lynched,  a  contention  which 
in  view  of  his  murder  without  trial  can  neither 
be  established  nor  controverted. 

"There  have  been  published  in  the  daily 
papers    since    May    1,    1919,    thirty-six   dif 
ferent  cases  of    alleged    attacks    of    colored 
men  on  white  women,"  the  informant  con 
tinues,  "and  wherever  there  was  any  reference 
to  an  attack  on  a  woman  by  any  man  the  in 
ference  was  always  there  that  the  man  com 
mitting   the  assault    was    a   Negro — that    is 
to  say,  in  no  case  was  it  ever  stated  where 
a  white  man  had  attacked  a  woman  that  the 
man  making  the  attack  was  white."    One  such 
story  was   published   in   the   inflamed   state 
of    the   public   mind    immediately   following 
the  riot  on  October  1st.     "Another  Woman 
Is  Victim  of  a  Negro  in  Guarded  Omaha," 
announced    a   scarehead    of    The   New    York 
World  on  October  2d.     In  the  course  of  the 
news  account  occurs  the  following  paragraph: 
"General  Wood  issued  a  statement  at  mid 
night  in  which  he  said  Mrs.  Wisner's  account 
of  the   attack  was  incomplete  and  in  part 
indefinite.     'There  are  some  curious  features 

166 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

to  the  case,'  he  said,  'Mrs.  Wisner  is  unable 
to  give  any  detailed  account  of  what  hap 
pened;  she  is  unable  to  say  positively  whether 
her  assailant  ivas  a  white  man  or  a  Negro, 
although  she  seems  to  think  that  he  was  a 
Negro.' '  In  the  prevailing  hysteria  it  would 
not  be  difficult  to  "seem  to  think"  any 
assailant  a  Negro.  The  elements  leading  to 
the  Omaha  riot  are  summarized  by  the 
informant  as  being  three:  "  (1)  an  element 
that  wanted  to  lynch  a  Negro  because  it  was 
led  to  believe  by  propaganda  that  the  Negroes 
were  really  committing  these  offenses  against 
white  women  and  were  being  inadequately 
punished  for  their  offenses;  (2)  there  was  a 
political  mob  bent  upon  wreaking  vengeance 
by  the  killing  of  the  city  officials,  and  (3) 
still  another  mob  bent  upon  destroying  all 
organized  government  and  property,  public 
and  private." 

The  foreman  of  Omaha's  grand  jury, 
John  W.  Towle,  substantiated  in  the  main 
the  statements  of  this  citizen  of  Omaha.  In 
submitting  the  jury's  report  he  asserted 
that  a  primary  cause  of  the  riot  was  "a  con 
certed  effort  on  the  part  of  certain  citizens, 
officials,  and  part  of  the  press  to  discredit 
the  police  force."  "It  is  a  well-known  fact," 

167 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

said  Mr.  Towle's  letter,  "that  there  are 
two  factions  in  the  city  and  county  political 
life.  Those  who  believe  in  enforcement  of 
law  and  order  now  have  the  control  of  the 
city  commission  and  the  police  force.  The 
leaders  of  the  opposition  have  very  frankly 
stated  that  they  are  in  favor  of  certain  kinds 
of  vice,  limited  to  restricted  areas;  that 
instead  of  licensing  or  suppressing  same  it 
should  be  openly  tolerated.  This  system 
was  in  force  during  the  past  administrations 
and  is  capable  of  most  extensive  commer 
cialism."  Mr.  Towle  then  asserted,  as  a 
matter  of  common  knowledge,  that  "at  least 
one  party  on  Saturday  night  previous"  to 
the  riot  went  about  to  pool-rooms  announcing 
that  an  attack  would  be  made  on  the  court 
house  "for  the  purpose  of  lynching  this 
colored  man."  Such  reports,  he  said,  "were 
current  about  the  city  and  were  known  in 
certain  official  circles,  and  just  why  this 
prisoner  was  not  moved  to  the  state  peni 
tentiary  or  some  other  suitable  place  for  safe 
keeping  has  never  been  satisfactorily  ex 
plained,  nor  why  these  officials  did  not 
apprise  Mayor  Smith,  Commissioner  Ringer, 
and  Chief  Eberstein  of  their  knowledge." 
Further  corroboration  came  from  the  County 

168 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

Attorney  in  Omaha,  who,  in  a  statement 
published  by  The  Omaha  Evening  World- 
Herald  of  October  1st,  lists  in  detail  the  "fake" 
stories  used  to  discredit  the  police  adminis 
tration  and  to  incite  to  riot.  "One  of  the 
most  popular  of  the  fake  stories  that  were 
used  to  incite  the  riot,"  he  said  in  the  course 
of  his  statement,  "was  that  a  colored  man 
had  attempted  to  assault  a  nine-year-old 
girl,  was  arrested,  identified,  and  given  ninety 
days  in  the  county  jail.  The  facts  are 
that  the  little  girl  saw  this  Negro,  and  thought 
he  was  quickening  his  step  toward  her.  She 
ran  and  told  her  mother.  The  Negro  was 
arrested,  but  there  was  no  evidence  that  he 
had  even  touched  the  girl  or  even  run  after 
her.  .  .  .  Still  another  story,  positively  false, 
was  used  in  stirring  up  feeling  that  preceded 
the  riot.  It  was  said  that  a  colored  man 
was  arrested  for  an  assault  upon  a  white 
woman,  and  that  she  identified  him,  but 
that  he  was  later  discharged.  In  this  case 
her  identification  was  very  weak,  and  the 
prisoner  established  a  positive  alibi,  bringing 
in  from  Iowa  the  white  foreman  of  a  road 
gang  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  who 
showed  by  his  time-checks  that  the  suspect 
was  in  Iowa  on  the  day  of  the  assault,  and  at 

169 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

work."  The  County  Attorney  draws  a 
proper  conclusion,  "This  sort  of  propaganda 
must  cease,  because  it  is  false  and  incites  to 
riot."  The  Governor  of  Nebraska  made  pub 
lic  acknowledgment  of  the  dangerous  propa 
ganda  when  he  remarked  on  September  30th 
that  those  "who  have  most  to  do  with  the 
molding  of  public  opinion  have  constantly 
engaged  in  petty  bickerings  and  criticism 
of  the  local  officials  which  could  not  result 
in  any  but  an  utter  disrespect  of  the  law" 
(New  York  Tribune,  October  1st).  It  was 
important  for  citizens  of  Omaha,  said  the 
Governor,  to  "organize  their  minds  to  dis 
courage  the  activities  of  those  who  are  con 
stantly  attempting  to  bring  reproach  upon 
public  officials." 

Industrial  conflict  formed,  as  is  usually 
the  case,  an  element  in  the  Omaha  municipal 
complex.  The  president  of  the  Nebraska 
State  Federation  of  Labor  blamed  the  im 
portation  from  the  South  of  non-union  Negroes 
for  the  disorder.  "Crimes  against  women 
form  the  basis,"  he  is  quoted  as  saying 
(New  York  World,  October  2d),  "but  the 
mob  was  given  impetus  by  causes  that 
are  not  apparent  on  the  surface."  Among 
these  causes  he  enumerates  the  attempt 

170 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

by  the  "great  employers  of  labor,  including 
the   packers,"    to    "break   down   the   wages 
of  white  labor"  with  imported  Negro  labor 
and   the   mayor's   use   of    Negro   labor   "to 
fight  the  cause  of  capital   against  the  just 
cause  of  the  workingmen."    "When  the  team 
sters  two  months   ago   were  on   strike  and 
were  fighting  for  a  living  wage  it  was  the 
mayor  who  put  to  work  the  ignorant  Negroes 
of  the  South.     He  placed  them  on  wagons. 
He    used    them    as    strike-breakers."     Even 
this  laborite  has  been  "stuffed"  with  stories 
of  assaults  by  Negroes  upon  white  women. 
But  he  makes  it  quite  clear  that  the  white 
workman   of   Omaha   does   not   want   black 
men  used  to  hold  down  wages.     "If  brought 
North  they  (the  Negroes)  must  not  be  brought 
to  fight    the    battles    of  capitalism.     Every 
packer,  every  large  employer  knows  what  I 
mean  by  that."     And  of  "the  moment"  when 
feeling    in    Omaha    overflowed    the    shallow 
container    called    civilization,    this    laborite 
remarked:     "Mayor  Smith  was  regarded  as 
an  enemy.     This   feeling   did   not   start   the 
attempt  to  lynch  him,  but  it  helped  to  carry 
it  along." 

It  will  be  seen  that  a  detailed  examination 
of  the  state  of  citizenship  and  city  govern- 

171 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

ment  in  Omaha  disintegrates  "Negro  Crime" 
as  a  cause  of  the  riot  of  September,  1919. 
Properly,  as  The  New  York  Evening  Post 
remarked,  the  outburst  could  hardly  be  called 
a  "race  riot."  Yet  that  was  its  characteriza 
tion  in  newspaper  scareheads  throughout  the 
nation.  A  casual  or  even  an  attentive  reader 
of  the  news  would  have  been  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  white  men  had  been  goaded 
to  fury  by  repeated  and  unpunished  attacks 
upon  their  women  by  colored  men.  Hidden 
and  isolated  paragraphs  from  various  news 
accounts  had  to  be  gathered  and  assembled 
to  give  some  picture  of  the  moving  forces 
which,  according  to  the  head  of  Nebraska's 
Federation  of  Labor,  were  not  apparent  on 
the  surface.  It  is  the  surface  only  which  the 
press  scratches  in  its  accounts  of  race  rela 
tions.  Where  the  press  is  used,  as  it  was  in 
Omaha,  to  be  a  tool  in  political  contest,  no 
analysis  and  exposition  is  to  be  expected 
for  the  people  whom  it  is  intended  to  bedazzle 
and  to  delude.  The  casual  and  adventitious 
reporter  descending  zestfully  upon  a  scene 
of  riot  from  otherwhere  may  absorb  political 
gossip,  and  usually  does.  But  he  is  expected 
to  write  about  what  happened,  not  about 
how  or  why  it  happened.  His  impressions 

172 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

are  what  people  elsewhere  in  the  nation,  as 
well  as  the  moralists  and  ethical  guides  who 
write  editorials,  are  given  to  read.  In  the 
nature  of  existing  news  service,  then,  when 
part  of  the  machinery  of  news  distribution 
is  the  organ  of  political  and  moneyed  factions 
and  the  rest  of  it  is  for  the  most  part  casual 
and  superficial  in  its  attack  upon  current 
events,  the  pictures  created  for  the  public 
of  race  relations  and  race  disturbances  must 
necessarily  be  grotesque  caricatures. 

Without  duplicating  or  paralleling  motives 
and  events  in  Omaha,  other  centers  of  dis 
turbance  have  presented  situations  obviously 
analogous.  Mr.  Carl  Sandburg  has  made  the 
political  implications  of  the  Chicago  "race 
riots"  tolerably  perspicuous.  He  referred 
especially  to  a  "city  administration  decisive 
in  its  refusal  to  draw  the  color  line,  and  a 
mayor  whose  opponents  failed  to  defeat 
him  with  the  covert  circulation  of  the  epithet 
of  ' nigger  -lover.'"  "The  Black  Belt  of 
Chicago,"  said  Mr.  Sandburg,  "is  probably 
the  strongest  effective  unit  of  political  power, 
good  or  bad,  in  America."  It  was  the  Second 
Ward,  formerly  one  of  the  best  residence 
districts  of  the  city,  now  including  much  of 
the  Black  Belt,  that  was  credited  with  having 

173 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

elected  Mayor  William  Hale  Thompson  in 
April  of  1919.  The  Second  Ward  gave  him 
more  than  11,000  votes  of  the  plurality  of 
some  17,500  by  which  he  was  elected.  Main 
taining  that  Mayor  Thompson  was  elected 
by  the  Negro  vote  of  Chicago,  an  editorial, 
expressive  of  what  many  men  were  thinking, 
said  of  him:  "...  He  lost  much  support, 
but  made  it  up  among  those  who  cared 
nothing  about  such  issues.  Two  white  men 
practically  control  the  Negro  vote.  These 
two  men  demanded  concessions  from  the 
Thompson  crowd  in  return  for  this  solid 
vote.  They  received  it  in  the  shape  of  con 
cessions  to  saloons,  cabarets,  dance-halls, 
and  dives  of  various  sorts.  In  the  Black 
Belt  all  kinds  of  places  were  kept  open  till 
morning,  while  in  other  parts  of  the  city 
they  were  required  to  close  at  1  A.M."  Testi 
mony  is  uniform  that  the  colored  residence 
district  was  made  to  suffer  from  lax  police  ad 
ministration,  and  that  the  exploitation  of  its 
voting  power  was  in  the  hands  of  gambling- 
house  keepers,  white  and  black,  and  their  pa 
trons.  "W.  M.  Bass  has  been  operating  craps 
and  poker  games  night  and  day  in  the  rear  of  a 
real-estate  office  on  East  Thirty-first  Street," 
said  Mr.  Sandburg,  "near  Cottage  Grove 

174 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

Avenue.  From  an  alley  entrance  at  3512  South 
State  Street  one  may  enter  a  temple  of  chance 
conducted  by  one  McFallin.  Two  men  known 
as  'Williams'  and  'Kennedy'  maintain  a  labo 
ratory  for  the  study  of  the  laws  of  chance  on 
South  State  Street,  near  Thirty-fifth  Street, 
entrances  front  and  rear.  T.  Jones  has  a 
similar  laboratory  on  South  State  Street, 
near  Thirty-ninth  Street,  second  floor,  front 
and  rear  entrances."  Mr.  Sandburg's  ac 
count  of  the  gambler's  Mecca  in  the  colored 
residence  district  hardly  lacks  circumstantial 
ity.  As  for  the  victims  of  the  gamblers,  "who 
are  naturally  also  the  victims  of  the  police  who 
let  the  gamblers  run  the  kind  of  games  that  are 
run:  .  .  .  Within  two  blocks  were  found  a 
total  of  eighty-three  families  where  96  per 
cent,  of  the  boys  were  truants  from  the  public 
schools,  and  72  per  cent,  of  these  boys  were 
retarded  at  least  one  year  by  reason  of  truancy. 
In  most  cases  the  parents  were  away  from 
home  so  much  that  they  were  out  of  touch 
with  the  children.  ...  In  thirty-one  cases 
the  father  had  'deserted/  which  means  he 
is  tired,  dead,  sick,  or  gone  wrong  from 
unknown  causes.  ...  In  twenty -eight  cases 
the  father  was  a  heavy  drinker." 

Where  a  mayor  is  elected  by  the  vote  of  a 

175 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

colored  district;  where  the  reward  is  given 
in  the  form  of  protection  and  immunity 
for  those  who  profit  from  vice;  where  the 
mayor  is  known  as  a  ' nigger-lover'  in  virtue 
of  his  administration's  exploitation  of  colored 
voters — it  is  not  difficult  to  demonstrate  the 
connection  of  ill  feeling  between  white  and 
black  men  and  politics.  But  it  was  not  only 
by  immunity  to  dive-keepers  that  the  colored 
district  was  invidiously  distinguished.  In 
November  of  1919,  four  months  after  the 
July  riots,  at  the  time  when  race  antagonism 
was  still  vivid,  accusations  of  discrimination 
were  made  in  the  distribution  of  funds  for 
street  cleaning.  "Black  Belt  Favored  in 
Cleaning  Streets"  read  the  caption  of  a 
Chicago  newspaper.  The  news  story  reported 
that,  although  streets  elsewhere  were  filthy, 
"the  Black  Belt  ward,  credited  with  re-elect 
ing  Mayor  Thompson,  has  not  suffered  in  the 
care  of  its  streets  and  alleys  because  of  the 
financial  stringency.  .  .  .  The  Fourteenth 
Ward,  which  was  carried  by  Mayor  Thomp 
son  because  of  the  heavy  vote  he  obtained  in 
the  Westlake  Street  colored  district,  was  not 
among  those  hit  by  the  high  cost  of  keeping 
the  city  clean." 

Industrial    or    political    as    the    causes    of 

176 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

disturbance  may  be  shown  to  be,  "race  riots" 
is  the  careless  descriptive  term  employed  to 
designate  it.  A  riot  of  more  Southern  com 
plexion  than  that  of  Chicago  occurred  in 
Knoxville,  Tennessee,  in  the  last  days  of 
August,  1919.  "Troops  Fight  Race  Rioters 
in  Knoxville,"  announced  The  New  York 
Times  of  September  1,  1919;  "Two  Known 
Dead,  More  Than  Score  Injured  After  Two 
Days  of  Lawlessness — Army  Lieutenant  Killed 
— Accidentally  Shot  by  Machine-gunners  Who 
Were  Firing  on  Attacking  Negro  Party — Mobs 
Loot  Many  Stores — Several  Murderers  Re 
leased  in  Attack  on  Jail,  which  Is  Plundered  of 
Money  and  Whisky."  To  judge  by  the  caption 
a  full-fledged  race  riot  was  in  progress  in  Knox 
ville  in  which  Negroes  had  formed  themselves 
into  "attacking  parties."  The  uproar  in 
which  shops  were  looted,  confiscated  whisky 
stolen  from  the  jail,  "everything  of  value, 
including  money,  guns,  whisky,  clothing,  and 
books,"  was  taken,  part  of  the  jail  records 
were  destroyed,  and  white  men  convicted 
of  murder  were  released  from  their  cells  and 
given  liberty,  was  ascribed  to  one  colored 
man  who  was  referred  to  as  the  "cause  of 
mob's  riot."  He  was  accused — but  had  not 
been  tried — of  killing  a  white  woman  by  shoot- 

12  177 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

ing.  The  "race  riot''  of  Knoxville  assumed 
a  different  complexion,  however,  when  R.  A. 
Mynatt,  the  local  ]  Attorney-General,  was 
quoted  in  a  despatch  to  The  New  York  Sun 
of  September  5th  as  being  "satisfied  that 
these  men  were  bent  on  releasing  white 
prisoners  and  looting,  and  camouflaged  their 
work  by  pretending  to  want  to  lynch  the 
Negro,  Maurice  Mays,  then  and  now  in  jail 
at  Chattanooga."  The  evidence  obtained 
at  the  trial  of  white  men  arrested  for  looting 
and  mobbism  showed  "that  they  did  not 
visit  the  Negro  floor,  once  they  had  gained 
entrance  to  the  jail,"  and  that  "they  set  about 
at  once  to  release  prisoners  and  to  plunder." 
An  inconspicuous  news  despatch  published 
in  the  Sun  the  following  day,  September  6th, 
bore  the  important  information  that  "the 
old  city  [of  Knoxville]  was  Democratic 
by  a  small  majority,  but  the  new  city  is 
Republican  by  from  fifteen  hundred  to  three 
thousand,  depending  on  the  way  the  women 
vote.  Failure  of  the  city  and  county  officials 
in  co-operating  to  prevent  the  recent  out 
break  between  the  races  here  has  become  a 
sharp  issue  in  to-morrow's  contests.  A  mayor 
will  be  elected  and  the  eight  highest  of  twenty 
candidates  will  engage  in  a  run-off  two  weeks 

178 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

later  to  fill  four  places  on  the  City  Com 
mission."  The  despatch  is  headed:  "Knox- 
ville  Negroes  Determine  to  Vote — Race  Riots 
Laid  to  City  Officers  in  Campaign  Fight."  The 
composition  of  the  mob  is  indicated  by  the 
fact  that  of  the  first  fifteen  white  prisoners 
to  testify,  only  five  had  never  been  convicted 
or  indicted  before.  The  convictions  against 
the  others  ranged  "from  one  to  more  than  a 
dozen,"  according  to  The  Knoxville  Sentinel, 
"and  from  small  offenses  to  some  of  a  more 
serious  nature."  Nevertheless,  the  Knoxville 
grand  jury  declined  to  indict  the  prisoners. 
Attorney-General  Mynatt  characterized  pro 
ceedings  as  a  miscarriage  of  justice  and 
announced  publicly  that  so  long  as  he  was 
connected  with  the  criminal  court  none  of 
the  jurors  would  ever  again  serve  on  a  jury. 
These  facts,  inconspicuous,  or  unpublished 
to  the  public,  which  had  read  in  huge  type 
of  Tennessee  troops  fighting  Negro  race 
rioters,  because  a  Negro  criminal  had  mur 
dered  a  white  woman,  hardly  affected  public 
information  regarding  conditions  in  Knox 
ville.  Neither  did  the  fact  that  Maurice 
Mays,  the  accused  Negro,  had  been  an 
active  solicitor  for  votes  in  behalf  of  one 
of  the  candidates  for  mayor. 

179 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

To  The  New  York  Sun  of  September  4th 
must  be  given  credit  for  two  further  para 
graphs  illuminating  the  series  of  outrages. 
"Politicians,  rival  candidates  for  mayor  in 
Saturday's  election,  are  attempting,"  says 
one  paragraph,  "to  capitalize  the  recent  out 
rage  to  their  advantage."  "Members  of  the 
city  police  force,"  says  the  next  paragraph 
but  one,  "passed  out  rifles  and  ammunition 
to  members  of  the  mob  who  broke  into  hard 
ware-stores  and  pawn-shops." 

Municipal  politics  did  not,  in  Washington, 
play  the  same  part  as  in  Chicago,  Omaha, 
and  Knoxville.  Appointive  as  is  the  Com 
mission  Government  of  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  there  could  be  no  such  obvious  intent 
to  discredit  the  commissioners  for  electioneer 
ing  purposes.  However,  the  Washington  po 
lice  had  been  asking  for  increased  pay  and 
there  had  been  agitation  for  new  appoint 
ments  to  the  force.  In  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  the  mobbism  in  Washington's 
streets  was  at  once  turned  to  the  account 
of  the  anti-prohibitionists,  who  asserted  that 
prohibition  encouraged  just  that  sort  of  law 
lessness.  Washington's  chief  of  police,  fur 
thermore,  connected  the  obscene  head-line 
display  with  which  The  Washington  Times 

180 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

and  The  Washington  Post  greeted  every  new 
crime  with  the  manifest  desire  of  anti-prohi 
bitionists  to  prove  their  contention  that  pro 
hibition  would  be  accompanied  by  a  "crime 
wave."  On  the  first  page  of  The  Washington 
Post  of  July  23d,  a  page  lurid  with  lists  of 
riot  victims,  tales  of  violence  and  brutality, 
one  column  had  for  its  caption  "'Dry  Bill' 
Is  Passed."  The  juxtaposition  is  the  more 
significant  in  that  to  The  Washington  Post 
as  much  as  to  any  one  agency  was  due  the 
hysterical  fear  and  hatred  which  made  the 
Washington  excesses  possible.  Intoxicating 
liquor  and  race  conflict  occurred  as  twin 
considerations  not  only  to  The  Washington 
Post,  but  to  Representative  Julius  Kahn  of 
California,  a  state  favorably  known  for  its 
grapes.  On  the  occasion  of  his  eighty-fifth 
birthday  Cardinal  Gibbons  was  interviewed 
by  a  representative  of  The  New  York  World. 
On  that  solemn  occasion  the  prelate  took  the 
occasion  to  say :  ' '  We  are  now  afflicted  with  a 
war  of  races  in  the  National  Capital,  where 
much  blood  has  already  been  shed  and  lives 
sacrificed.  Alas !  it  is  a  proof  that  a  legislative 
suppression  of  intoxicating  drinks  is  not,  as 
it  was  said  it  would  be,  a  panacea  against  all 
social  and  moral  evils." 

181 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Washington  has  been  adverted  to  as  the 
meeting-ground  of  Southern  and  Northern 
attitudes  on  race  matters.  Southern  senti 
ment  looked  hopefully  to  the  outcome  of  the 
conflict  in  the  capital's  streets.  Disgust  was 
written  not  only  on  the  faces  of  Southern 
Representatives,  but  in  Southern  newspapers, 
at  the  "leniency"  with  which  colored  people 
had  been  treated.  It  will  be  recalled  that  the 
riots  had  begun  in  a  raid  by  white  soldiers 
and  sailors  upon  the  colored  residence  district 
and  the  beating  of  unoffending  colored  men 
on  the  streets.  Yet,  said  the  Washington 
correspondent  of  a  Memphis,  Tennessee,  news 
paper  on  July  24th:  "Southern  Democrats 
here  were  sore  to  the  core  to-day.  They  were 
disgusted  at  the  alien  and  'uplift'  radicals 
who  prevented  real  action  to  clear  up  the 
situation."  The  "  Southerners  in  the  capital " 
were  "disgusted  beyond  words  with  the 
actions  of  the  District  government,  and  the 
national  administration,  which  acted  almost 
entirely  with  a  view  of  protecting  the 
Negroes."  The  disgust  was  all-inclusive. 
"From  Secretary  of  War  Baker  down  to 
Chief  of  Police  Pullman  the  entire  conduct 
of  the  government  during  the  riots  was 
characterized  by  sissy  ism.  The  influence  of 

182 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

aliens  and  of  New  England  Negro  elements 
prevented  the  vigorous  policy  which  would 
have  been  pursued  even  in  New  York,  to  say 
nothing  of  Southern  cities."  The  Southern 
remedy  for  conflict  is  then  indicated:  "The 
police  failed  to  round  up  all  Negroes  and 
disarm  them,  as  would  have  been  done  in 
any  Southern  city  or  almost  any  other  place." 
The  consequence  of  disarming  the  colored 
people  of  Washington,  supposing  that  to 
have  been  possible,  could  hardly  have  been 
imagined,  much  less  described.  For,  in  the 
first  two  days  of  disorder,  what  kept  white 
mobs  from  pillage,  assault,  incendiarism,  and 
murder  in  the  colored  district  of  Washington 
was  not  police,  but  pistols  and  rifles  in  the 
hands  of  colored  men. 

Race  tension  in  cities,  it  has  been  indicated, 
is  definitely  subject  to  manipulation  by  politi 
cal  leaders  and  their  allies  in  newspaper 
offices.  If  that  lesson  was  not  learned  in 
1919,  it  will  never  be  and  the  future  of  race 
relations  in  the  United  States  is  an  ominous 
one.  It  is  idle  to  talk  about  "solving  the 
race  problem"  when  cheap  and  mendacious 
newspapers,  making  claims  to  utmost  respect 
ability,  are  purchasable  by  political  factions 
and  deprive  Americans  of  the  one  essential 

183 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

to  democracy — accurate  information  on  mat 
ters  of  public  concern.  The  conditions  in 
each  of  the  cities  whose  riots  have  been 
examined  does  not  differ  essentially  from 
that  which  prevails  in  the  nation  at  large. 
The  Negro's  position  is  prejudiced  by  the 
Southern  color  psychosis  whose  victims  pro 
claim  their  dogma  with  religious  fervor.  The 
Negro  has  been  used  as  a  bogy  or  a  scapegoat, 
as  the  case  may  be,  in  the  argument  of  every 
political  and  social  question,  from  prohibition 
to  the  League  of  Nations.  He  has  been 
stereotyped  in  the  public  mind  as  a  criminal 
and  a  degenerate,  and  has  therefore  become  a 
proper  object  of  fear  and  hatred  with  which 
to  play  upon  the  imaginations  of  a  misin 
formed  electorate.  It  will  be  the  wrork  of 
years  to  undo  the  poisonous  and  anti-social 
accomplishments  of  such  organs  as  The  Omaha 
Bee,  The  Washington  Post  and  The  Times,  The 
Chicago  Evening  Post,  The  New  York  Times, 
in  fact,  of  the  majority  of  American  news 
papers. 

For  the  future,  however,  American  public 
opinion  can  assure  to  itself  certain  minima 
of  decency.  It  should  be  possible  to  prosecute 
newspapers  which  publish  exaggerated  and 
mendacious  accounts  of  crime.  It  should  be 

184, 


THE  SCAPEGOAT  OF  CITY  POLITICS 

possible  to  discountenance  the  word  "Negro" 
in  bold  head-lines  when  it  is  obvious  the  inten 
tion  is  to  provoke  hysteria  that  can  find  a 
vent  only  in  mobbism  and  murderous  brutality. 
It  should  be  possible  for  white  Americans  to 
show  Negro  Americans  in  cities  of  the  United 
States  that  they  have  some  stake  in  city 
administration  other  than  that  which  they 
now  so  often  have  to  obtain  through  the 
political  ingenuity  of  a  few  corrupt  leaders. 
For  the  present,  the  only  course  for  white 
Americans  to  pursue  is  to  cultivate  thorough 
going  skepticism  as  to  everything  which 
American  newspapers  publish  about  the 
Negro;  and  for  colored  Americans  to  in 
sist,  in  so  far  as  avenues  of  communication 
are  not  closed  to  them,  on  the  facts  being 
made  known.  Meanwhile,  occurrences  such  as 
smudged  the  red,  white,  and  blue  of  100-per 
cent.  Americanism  during  1919  suggest  that 
there  is  work  to  be  done  in  establishing 
government  or  at  least  peace  in  American 
cities. 


VII 

THE   NEGKO   IN   INDUSTRY 

I 

Labor 

HHHE  World  War  helped  to  dispel  the  myth 
that  the  American  Negro  was  at  best  an 
agricultural  laborer  only  and  that  complicated 
industrial  processes  overtaxed  his  abilities. 
That  myth  was  dispelled  in  the  factories  where 
colored  workmen  did  white  men's  work  and  did 
as  well  as,  and  often  better  than,  immigrants 
from  Europe.  In  the  course  of  the  practical 
demonstration  of  their  capacity  as  machinists 
and  factory  operatives,  colored  men  not  only 
established  themselves  in  the  North;  their  pros 
perity  exerted  a  pull  on  their  friends  in  the 
South,  so  that  the  migration,  even  after  the 
signing  of  the  armistice,  alarmed  Southern 
communities  whose  labor  supply  was  being 
depleted.  The  immigration  intensified  many 
of  the  maladjustments  of  industrial  society. 

186 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

Congestion  and  overcrowding  occurred  in  the 
cities  to  which  the  colored  workers  came. 
Bitter  antagonisms  were  brought  about  be 
tween  white  labor  unions  and  unorganized 
colored  workers.  Many  white  people,  who 
had  known  color  prejudice  only  in  the  off 
hand  way  of  contempt,  found  their  emotions 
feverishly  active  when  their  men  and  colored 
men  competed  for  jobs  or  when,  during  a 
strike,  places  were  filled  with  Negroes  im 
ported  by  hundreds  from  Alabama,  Missis 
sippi,  or  Georgia.  The  increased  tension 
between  the  races  to  which  the  northward 
movement  contributed  had  two  main  deter 
minants.  First,  recognition  by  Northern  in 
dustrialists  that  they  must  find  some  source  of 
cheap  labor  to  compensate  the  stoppage  of 
immigration  during  the  war,  and  that  Southern 
Negroes  were  available  for  their  purposes. 
Second,  a  realization  by  white  labor-unionists 
that  their  unions  were  endangered  by  an 
influx  of  aliens,  unorganized,  distrustful  of 
labor  unions  and  therefore  difficult  and  in 
many  cases  impossible,  for  the  time,  to 
unionize.  What  has  been  called  "group  pro 
tection"  became  a  strong  motive  among 
white  unionists.  Independent  as  it  was  of 
racial  antipathy — for  hostility  would  have 

187 


THE  NEGI10  FACES  AMERICA 

been  directed  against  any  laborers  who  threat 
ened  union  standards — it  speedily  fastened 
on  the  color  line.  Thus,  from  the  industrial 
movements  and  readjustments  incident  to 
the  war  grew  new  race  conflict. 

For  the  Negro,  war-time  opportunity  was 
especially  significant  in  that  it  enabled  him, 
as  he  had  never  been  able  to  do,  to  play  with 
capital  and  with  labor.  In  a  short  space  of 
time  Negroes  found  themselves  preferred 
in  many  plants  from  which  they  had  previ 
ously  been  excluded  or  where  they  had  been 
employed  in  small  numbers  only.  Their 
leaders  urged  them  not  to  serve  as  strike 
breakers,  just  as  the  more  intelligent  of  the 
white  union  leaders  had  warned  against 
dividing  labor  by  the  color  line.  In  practice, 
white  unionists  had  discriminated  against 
the  Negro,  had  given  him  no  jobs  when  the 
allotments  were  made,  or  the  most  arduous 
and  disagreeable  work;  had  either  discouraged 
his  joining  their  unions  or  had  made  it  virtu 
ally  impossible  for  him  to  do  so.  In  practice, 
the  Negro,  indoctrinated  with  the  brother 
hood  of  man  and  the  common  interests  of  all 
labor,  irrespective  of  color,  took  advantage 
of  the  situation  which  presented  itself.  Col 
ored  workers  in  many  instances  saw  no  reason 

188 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

why,  having  always  been  made  victims  of 
white  discrimination,  they  should  fight  the 
white  unionists'  battles. 

The  Negro's  distrust  of  unionism,  justified 
as  it  has  been  by  discrimination  in  the  North, 
is  based  on  the  treatment  of  colored  labor 
in  the  South.  It  has  been  the  rule  to  exclude 
Negroes  from  wiiite  unions.  In  June  of 
1919  it  was  reported  that  two  thousand 
white  unionists  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  had 
withdrawn  from  the  Virginia  Federation  of 
Labor  because  W.  C.  Page,  a  Negro  of  New 
port  News,  had  been  seated  as  a  delegate. 
Under  the  circumstances,  the  American  Fed 
eration  of  Labor  at  its  spring  meeting  in 
1919  indulged  in  a  more  or  less  empty  gesture 
in  voting,  with  but  one  dissenting  voice,  to 
admit  Negroes  to  full  membership.  As  is 
known,  the  Federation  exercises  little  power 
over  its  constituent  international  unions.  At 
the  same  convention  at  which  the  vote  was 
taken,  a  representative  of  the  Brotherhood 
of  Railway  Clerks  justified  the  exclusion  of 
Negroes  from  their  union  and  announced  that 
the  color  line  would  be  drawn  in  the  future 
as  it  had  in  the  past.  One  of  the  colored 
delegates  to  the  convention  reported  that  in 
Virginia,from  March  to  April,  1919,  forty-three 

189 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

thousand  Negro  workmen  had  been  obliged 
to  join  an  independent  labor  union  because 
they  could  not  be  received  into  those  affiliated 
with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 
The  influence  of  Southern  delegates  to  the 
Federation  had  always  prevented  effective 
measures  to  organize  Negroes.  Even  where 
the  constitution  of  the  union  contained  no 
express  prohibition,  it  was  not  uncommon 
for  white  membership  to  double  while  no 
Negroes  were  added,  in  an  industry  giving 
employment  to  both  white  and  colored  men. 
It  is  recounted  in  Epstein's  The  Negro  Migrant 
in  Pittsburgh  that  one  labor  leader  reported 
a  growth  in  membership  of  100  per  cent,  in 
six  months,  in  the  Pittsburgh  district.  He 
said  that  there  were  no  colored  men  in  the 
union,  although  numbers  had  applied  for 
membership  and  complaints  had  been  made 
of  discrimination. 

"His  statement  concerning  efforts  to  or 
ganize  Negro  laborers,"  the  investigator  com 
ments,  "\vould  seem  to  have  little  meaning 
in  view  of  his  assertion  that  the  growth  of 
white  membership  during  the  past  year  was 
100  per  cent.,  while  that  of  Negro  member 
ship  was  zero."  This  man's  attitude  is 
found  typical  of  the  "complacent  trade-union- 

190 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

ist."  At  the  very  time  when  it  was  claimed 
that  the  union  was  endeavoring  to  organize 
Negro  workers,  a  white  man  who  joined 
was  reported  to  have  been  pledged  as  follows 
by  the  president  of  the  union:  "I  pledge 
that  I  will  not  introduce  for  membership 
into  this  union  any  one  but  a  sober,  indus 
trious  WHITE  person."  Among  labor  lead 
ers,  too,  are  men  born  in  the  South,  convinced 
that  the  Negro  is  inferior,  and  strongly 
adherent  to  the  advantages  of  segregation 
and  "Jim-Crowing."  Through  the  influence 
of  individual  labor  leaders  and  of  delegates 
to  the  Federation,  the  Southern  practice 
was  made  fairly  general  in  the  North  while 
Negroes  were  not  in  a  position  to  constitute 
a  menace  to  unionism.  With  the  demand 
for  Negro  labor  to  supply  war-time  and 
after-war  needs,  the  scene  changed.  The 
Federation  made  its  gesture  of  generosity. 
Unions  whose  strikers  were  being  replaced 
suddenly  discovered  the  brotherhood  of  man. 
The  Negro  found  himself  in  a  position  of 
strategic  importance.  His  skepticism  regard 
ing  the  advances  of  white  unionists  found 
expression  in  such  news  paragraphs  as  the 
following,  from  The  St.  Louis  Argus,  of  July 
18,  1919:  "The  recent  Atlantic  City  meeting 

191 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  at  which 
the  'hand  of  fellowship'  was  offered  the 
colored  man,  has  not  caused  tradesmen  of 
the  race  to  jump  pell-mell  into  the  union 
band-wagon.  In  fact,  it  seems  to  have  pro 
duced  a  reverse  effect.  The  Negroes  realize 
that  they  have  become  an  important  part 
of  the  working-class  in  industrial  sections. 
The  unions  have,  in  the  past,  obstinately 
refused  to  admit  them  to  membership  or  else 
placed  them  in  auxiliary  locals  without  direct 
representation.  They  cannot  believe  that 
this  sudden  change  of  heart  is  not  backed 
by  some  ulterior  motive."  Every  sort  of 
opposition  was  offered  the  Negro  during  his 
progress  to  industrial  bargaining  power.  Mr. 
Roger  Baldwin,  who  worked  as  a  manual 
laborer  in  the  Middle  West  during  October 
and  November  of  1919,  writes: l 

"Everywhere,  of  course,  the  Negroes  had 
the  hardest  and  most  disagreeable  jobs.  Only 
the  exceptional  Negro  had  risen  above  the 
lowest  paid  day-labor  rate.  That's  the  rate 
I  was  getting,  too!  And  it  was  these  men 
I  found  really  thinking,  keenly  conscious 
of  the  relation  of  their  own  problem  to  the 
race  and  to  labor.  Every  one  of  the  men 

1  Memorandum  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Baldwin. 
192 


THE  NEGHO  IN   INDUSTRY 

was  in  favor  of  unions,  but  every  one  of 
them  complained  of  union  discrimination 
against  the  Negro.  They  are  ready  for 
organization  which  they  feel  would  be  fair 
to  them. 

"On  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  feeling 
of  desperation  because  of  the  almost  universal 
ignoring  or  contempt  of  the  Negro.  Every 
man  I  spoke  to  talked  of  warfare  between 
the  races.  All  of  them  had  arms  or  were 
going  to  get  them.  All  of  them  were  pre 
paring  to  resist  further  invasion  of  what  they 
regarded  as  their  rights.  They  just  didn't 
seem  to  have  faith  that  white  men,  even 
in  the  unions,  were  going  to  make  common 
cause  with  them.  Even  the  scabs  in  the 
steel-mill  at  Homestead,  Pennsylvania,  where 
Negroes  have  been  imported  by  the  thousand, 
were  all  for  the  union  and  all  for  a  strike  at  the 
right  time,  but  they  felt  that  they  owed  noth 
ing  to  white  men  who  had  so  long  ignored 
and  oppressed  them.  Not  a  single  organizer 
had  been  sent  into  the  Pittsburgh  steel  dis 
trict.  ...  I  couldn't  help  but  feel,  as  I 
looked  around  at  the  forces  lined  up  about 
me,  that  the  immediate  future  of  American 
labor  in  many  industrial  centers  depends 
on  what  the  unions  will  do  with  the  Negro. 

13  193 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

It  is  the  white  man's  job  if  he  is  to 
make  the  solidarity  of  labor  a  living  fact." 
Mr.  Baldwin  found  no  "theoretical  radi 
calism"  among  the  Negroes.  "I  found," 
he  says,  "no  trace  of  'Red'  propaganda, 
but  I  found  observations  and  conclusions 
expressed  in  as  'Red'  terms  as  I  have  ever 
heard  them  from  a  soap-box  agitator.  It 
is  obvious  that  the  conditions  themselves 
produce  radical  thinking." 

Discrimination  against  Negro  labor  bore 
fruit  in  the  steel  strike  of  1919.  The  con 
ditions  which  materially  helped  to  engender 
the  East  St.  Louis  riots  and  the  Chicago 
disorders  were  reproduced.  Despite  opposi 
tion  in  the  South,  where  labor  recruiters  and 
agents  risked  death  at  the  hands  of  a  mob 
if  their  errand  were  made  known,  Negroes 
were  brought  North.  Negro  welfare  workers 
were  employed  at  the  Homestead  and  Du- 
quesne  plants  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company, 
at  the  Monessen  plant  of  the  Pittsburgh 
Steel  Company,  and  by  the  Lockhart  Iron 
and  Steel  Company.  Three  of  the  four  basic 
mills  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
and  the  largest  of  the  independent  mills 
pursued  the  policy  of  encouraging  employment 
of  Negroes.  During  the  first  six  weeks  of  the 

194 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

steel    strike   six   thousand   Negroes,    it    was 
estimated,  were  brought  to  Allegheny  County. 
At  Lackawanna  before  the  strike  there  were 
said   to    be    seven    thousand   employees,   of 
whom    seventy -two    were    Negroes.     During 
the  strike  the  mill  was  operated  chiefly  with 
Negro  labor.     Some   of   the   steel-mills  em 
ployed  Negro  preachers.     Early  in  November 
a  representative  of  the  Urban  League  said 
that  Negroes  in  the  steel-works  had  remained 
at  work  during  the  strike  almost  to  a  man. 
There   were,    of   course,    exceptions,   but   in 
general,  however  favorably  they  were  disposed 
to  white  labor  unions,  Negroes  became  effec 
tive  instruments  to  be  used   against  white 
unions.     If  the  vote  of  the  American  Federa 
tion  of  Labor  to  unionize  Negroes  was  an 
anticipation  and  a  recognition  of  the  menace 
of  a  division  of  labor  along  color  lines,  that 
state  of  mind  found  recognition  in  the  South. 
For  the  first  time  to  any  marked  extent  white 
labor  realized  the  necessity  for  making  allies 
of  colored  workers.     Any  such  general  change 
of  front  by  white  workmen  would  menace  the 
very  foundations  of  the  color  line  as  it  is 
drawn  in  the  South.     It  is,  therefore,  signif 
icant   to  note  what  extraordinary  measures 
were  adopted  to  prevent  a  coalition  of  white 

195 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

and  colored  labor.  As  always,  the  advocates 
of  the  color  line  brought  about  violence  to 
sustain  the  division.  It  is  a  melodramatic 
episode  which  reveals  the  forces  which  were  at 
work  in  the  South. 

In  Bogalusa,  Louisiana,  on  November  22, 
1919,  three  white  men  were  shot  dead,  and  a 
number  were  severely  wounded.  One  of  the 
men  killed  was  district  president  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor;  another  was 
a  union  carpenter.  The  white  men  were 
killed,  according  to  reports  in  the  newspapers, 
because  they  had  walked,  armed,  down  the 
main  street  of  Bogalusa,  protecting  with  their 
lives  and  guns  the  life  of  a  colored  labor  or 
ganizer.  "The  black  man,"  says  Miss  Mary 
White  Ovington,1  "had  dared  to  organize 
in  a  district  where  organization  meant  at  the 
least  exile,  at  the  most  death  by  lynching." 
In  the  town  where  his  white  protectors  were 
shot  dead  for  refusing  to  give  him  up,  the 
controlling  lumber  company  had  in  the  fall 
of  1919  ordered  twenty -five  hundred  union 
men  to  destroy  their  union  cards.  "The 
company,"  said  Miss  Ovington,  "has  at  its 
command  the  Loyalty  League,  a  state  organi 
zation  formed  during  the  war,  not  of  soldiers, 

»  The  Liberator,  January,  1920, 
190 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

but  of  men  at  home,  part  of  whose  business 
it  was  to  see  that  every  able-bodied  man 
(Negro  understood)  should  work  at  any 
task,  at  any  wage,  and  for  any  hours  that  the 
employer  might  desire.  They  had  back  of 
them  the  state  'work  or  fight'  law  and  might 
put  to  work  men  temporarily  unemployed 
save  that  the  provision  of  the  Act  did  not 
apply  to  'persons  temporarily  unemployed 
by  reasons  of  differences  with  their  employers 
such  as  strikes  or  lockouts.'  Under  this 
legislation  it  was  small  wonder  that  unionism 
was  forbidden  by  the  lumber  company;  or 
that,  unionism  continuing,  despite  the  mas 
ter's  mandate,  the  Loyalty  League,  though 
the  war  was  ended,  continued  its  work." 
It  was  in  the  continuance  of  this  "work" 
that  the  Negro  organizer  was  hunted  and  the 
three  white  union  men  who  protected  him 
were  shot  down. 

The  account  of  the  affair  published  in 
The  New  York  Times  of  November  23,  1919, 
is  worthy  of  quotation  for  its  frankness: l 

"Trouble  between  the  Loyalty  League, 
which  includes  ex-service  men  and  representa 
tive^}  of  the  Great  Southern  Lumber  Company 
and  other  business  interests  on  the  one  hand, 

1  Italics  mine. 
197 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

and  union  labor,  ...  on  the  other,  began  last 
night  after  about  five  hundred  armed  mem 
bers  of  the  League  held  up  a  train  half  a 
mile  from  the  railroad  station  and  searched  it 
for  undesirables.  After  the  search  had  failed 
to  reveal  any  one  whose  presence  was  unwel 
come,  the  crowd  started  to  find  a  Negro  who 
was  said  to  have  been  active  recently  in  trying 
to  stir  up  bad  feeling  among  his  race  against 
the  whites.  The  search,  continued  until  a 
late  hour,  was  unsuccessful. 

"This  morning,  to  the  surprise  of  the 
Loyalty  League  men,  the  Negro  they  sought 
emerged  from  his  hiding-place  and  walked 
boldly  down  the  principal  street  of  the  town. 
On  either  side  of  him  was  an  armed  white 
man.  .  .  ."  In  view  of  the  protection  of  the 
Negro  by  white  union  men,  the  contention 
of  the  Loyalty  Leaguers  is  significant:  "They 
said  the  black  man  had  been  trying  to  cause 
race-rioting  and  that  they  did  not  intend 
to  permit  him  to  stay  there."  It  would  seem 
that  the  black  man  had  been  an  extraordinary 
organizer  of  race  riots  to  enlist  white  men 
as  his  defenders.  "Rallying  their  forces 
quickly,  the  Loyalty  Leaguers  forced  the 
three  to  retreat  to  an  automobile  garage. 
When  called  upon  to  surrender  the  Negro, 

198 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

the  men  in  the  garage  refused,  and  firing 
began.  Williams,  Bouchillon,  and  Gaines  sac 
rificed  their  lives  in  protecting  the  Negro, 
whose  name  [Saul  Dechus]  was  not  learned, 
and  O'Rourke  received  fatal  wounds."  The 
connection  of  business1  and  "loyalty"  is  further 
indicated  in  a  subsequent  despatch,  published 
in  The  New  York  Globe  November  24,  1919, 
which  refers  to  "members  of  the  *  Loyalty 
League,'  made  up  partly  from  the  employees 
of  the  Great  Southern  Lumber  Company," 
who  "attempted  to  arrest  the  Negro." 

As  early  as  June,  1919,  the  president  of  the 
New  Orleans  branch  of  the  National  Associa 
tion  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People 
had  reported  the  expulsion  from  Bogalusa 
of  respectable  colored  men,  "among  them  a 
doctor  owning  about  fifty  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  property"  because  they  had  refused 
to  advise  colored  people  against  joining  the 
unions.  The  committee  which  visited  the  col 
ored  citizens  gave  them  twenty  minutes,  or  an 
hour,  or  six  hours,  to  leave  town,  according 
to  their  circumstances.  One  of  the  Negroes, 
sixty-five  years  old,  who  was  beaten  on  the 
night  before  the  hunt  for  the  Negro  organizer 
which  cost  four  white  men's  lives,  wrote  of 
his  experiences  to  The  New  Orleans  Vindicator: 

199 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

"I  moved  to  Bogalusa  in  1907.  I  worked 
off  and  on  for  the  Great  Southern  Lumber 
Company  up  to  the  time  the  labor  trouble 
began.  In  November  I  met  a  member  of 
the  so-called  *  strong-armed  squad'  and  he 
said  to  me,  'Why  don't  you  go  back  to  work?' 
I  said  that  the  company  demanded  that  I 
tear  up  my  union  card  and  that  was  the 
only  condition  under  which  we  would  be 
allowed  to  go  back  to  work — renounce  our 
union  membership  and  get  back  into  the  old 
rut  where  we  had  always  been  until  just  a 
short  while  ago  wrhen  we  joined  the  union. 
He  replied  to  me,  'Well,  you  had  better 
get  out  of  this  town!'  I  thought  little  of 
the  remark  at  first  because  I  have  always 
tried  to  live  peaceable  writh  everybody  and, 
secondly,  I  could  not  think  that  any  civilized 
man  in  this  day  and  time  could  think  of 
killing  a  man  because  he  tried,  in  a  legal 
way,  to  get  all  that  he  could  for  his  labor. 
This  man  proved  to  be  one  of  the  gang  that 
came  to  my  home  Friday  night  and  dragged 
me  out  and  beat  me.  I  know  him  well 
and  he  knows  me." 

Officers  of  local  labor  unions  telegraphed 
to  the  United  States  Attorney-General,  to 
the  president  of  the  American  Federation  of 

200 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

Labor,  and  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  recalling 
their  repeated  requests  for  investigation  of 
conditions  in  Bogalusa.  Whatever  the  out 
come  of  investigation  or  neglect,  one  fact  of 
major  significance  for  race  relations  was 
uncovered  there.  As  Miss  Ovington  said  in 
comment,  "Not  since  the  days  of  Populism 
has  the  South  seen  so  dramatic  an  espousal 
by  the  white  man  of  the  black  man's  cause." 
It  indicated  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the 
exploitation  of  both  white  and  colored  workers 
which  had  been  accomplished  by  pitting  their 
groups  against  one  another  and  by  fanning 
the  animosities  that  left  them  hostile.1 

The  supremacy  is  menaced  of  lumber 
companies  which  exploit  black  labor  merci 
lessly  by  preventing  organization.  White 
men,  too  poor  to  pay  a  poll  tax,  ignorant,  and 
disfranchised,  have  found  a  key  to  such 
industrial  conditions  as  those  in  Bogalusa. 
When  they  join  forces  with  colored  labor 
a  political,  as  well  as  an  industrial  system 
that  is  founded  in  misinformation,  oppres 
sion,  artificially  fostered  hatreds  and  brutali 
ties,  begins  to  totter.  As  the  color  line  is 
stretched  and  becomes  a  matter  of  national 

1  Further  information  on  the  Bogalusa  episode  is  contained  in 
Appendix. 

201 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

concern,  it  becomes  more  and  more  evident 
that  colored  labor  cannot  be  treated  as 
though  it  were  a  monstrosity  or  a  rare  speci 
men.  Too  much  evidence  is  at  hand  which 
demonstrates  that  not  only  have  colored 
men  done  their  work  as  well  as  white,  often 
increasing  output  in  factories  manned  pre 
viously  by  white  men,  but  also  have  worked 
in  amity,  without  friction,  among  white 
workers.  The  elaborate  plans  made  by  the 
steel  companies  to  obtain  and  to  keep  Negro 
labor  tell  their  own  story.  The  Urban  League 
of  Pittsburgh  found  that  the  Negro  laborer 
"can  do  anything  the  white  wrorker  can  do." 
If  some  negroes  are  unsteady,  on  the  other 
hand  there  are  "hundreds  and  hundreds  and 
even  thousands  of  Negroes  who  have  not  lost 
a  single  day  and  are  counted  upon  by  concerns 
as  their  most  dependable  men."  A  letter 
from  the  head  of  a  Negro  welfare  association 
of  Cleveland  says  of  a  questionnaire  sent  to 
employers:  "The  employers'  opinion  as  to 
efficiency  has  been  very  satisfactory.  This  is 
determined  by  the  answers  contained  in  a 
questionnaire  sent  out  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  industrial  plants.  Most  of  these  answers 
have  been  returned,  but  the  data  have  not  been 
compiled.  Only  two  or  three,  so  far,  have 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

expressed  dissatisfaction,  and  even  their  criti 
cism  is  qualified."  A  letter  from  an  officer 
of  the  Department  of  Labor  states:  "Em 
ployers  of  labor  have  informed  me  that  the 
Negro  is  not  less  efficient  than  the  native 
white  and  is  more  efficient  than  certain  types 
of  foreigners.  The  charge  of  inefficiency 
usually  comes  from  locations  where  'camps' 
obtain  or  where  housing  facilities  are  inade 
quate.  It  is  unreasonable  to  expect  100-per 
cent,  efficiency  from  a  man  who  is  obliged 
to  sleep  in  a  public  park,  in  a  sub-basement, 
in  a  bathtub,  or  in  a  ten-by-twelve-foot 
room  with  half  a  dozen  other  men." 

Dr.  George  E.  Haynes,  Director  of  Negro 
Economics  of  the  Department  of  Labor, 
in  a  letter  of  November  12,  1919.  quoted 
the  following  as  "characteristic  opinions"  of 
employers.  From  an  automobile  firm  in 
Detroit,  Michigan:  "We  have  in  our  employ 
some  twelve  hundred  to  fifteen  hundred 
Negroes.  They  are  giving  very  satisfactory 


services." 


Another  such  firm  reported  the  reorganiza 
tion  of  one  department  whose  work  had  been 
done  "by  seventy  white  men  of  many  na 
tionalities,  and  by  working  overtime  these 
seventy  men  were  producing  an  average 

203 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

of  eighteen  chassis  per  day.  The  work  in 
cluded  riveting,  drilling,  filing,  and  pressing  in 
hangers  and  bushings.  Within  ,  after 

this  department  had  been  re»  A,  using 

Negro  workers  exclusively,  ien  were 

producing  from  forty  to  fifto  mblies  per 
day,  and  overtime  work  hac1  en  greatly  re 
duced.  This  showed  a  cleai  acrease  in  effi 
ciency  of  over  300  per  cent." 

A  news  paragraph  from  the  Department  of 
Labor,  published  early  in  February,  reported 
a  decrease  in  the  accident  rate  as  Negro 
molders  and  helpers  supplanted  other  labor 
in  the  foundries  of  Indianapolis:  "Another 
very  interesting  fact  is  that  both  union  and 
non-union  white  molders  have  worked  with 
these  Negroes  in  most  friendly  co-operation. 
.  .  .  The  general  testimony  of  the  foundry 
owners  and  managers  in  a  number  of  foundries 
is  that  the  Negro  molders  have  given  entire 
satisfaction  under  the  strenuous  war  pace, 
and  that  the  Negro  is  making  good.  Some 
managers  say  that  the  conditions  that  exist 
between  workers  depend  upon  the  individual 
and  not  upon  the  race" 1 

It  is  not  necessary  to  draw  from  the  evi 
dence  presented  any  conclusions  other  than 

1  Italics  mine. 
204 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

those  written  upon  the  face  of  the  facts— 
namely,  that  the  Negro  has  enormously 
enlarg  \ere  of  opportunity  in  industry 

by  doit^o£i£fii  ,ctorily  the  work  allotted  to 
him;  th&<  as  worked  with  white  men 

amicably;  hat  the  future  of  the  Ameri 

can  labor  mov  ?nt  will  be  involved  to  some 
extent  in  the  p>  jtion  wiiich  the  Negro  work 
man  is  given  or  takes.  In  the  existing  state 
of  industrial  organization,  the  Negro's  capa 
bilities,  as  they  may  be  limited  or  determined 
by  racial  inheritance,  play  a  small  part. 
With  few  exceptions  industries  are  not  so 
thoroughly  organized  that  slight  individual 
and  psychological  differences  make  themselves 
felt  in  large-scale  production.  Meanwhile 
the  test  of  practice  has  been  applied.  The 
results  have  shown  industrial  corporations 
eager  to  employ  and  to  retain  Negro  labor. 
That  is  a  fact  which,  regardless  of  racial  prej 
udice,  actual  or  alleged  racial  "inferiority," 
it  is  necessary  for  any  student  of  labor  cur 
rents  to  take  into  account. 

It  was  not  uncommon  during  the  steel 
strike  of  1919  for  such  captions  to  be  published 
as  the  following  in  The  New  York  Tribune 
of  September  24th,  "Race  War  Feared  at 
Gary  Plants — Negroes  Imported  from  Bir- 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

mingharn  Stir  Anger  of  the  Strikers."  The 
caption  was  followed  by  a  first  paragraph 
announcing  that  "threats  of  a  race  war  be 
tween  foreign-born  strikers  and  Negro  steel 
men  remaining  at  work  drew  interest,"  as 
more  mills  were  closed.  What  was  described 
as  an  "undercurrent  of  hostility"  was  ex 
plained  by  the  assertion  that  "three  hundred 
Negroes,  recently  imported  from  Birming 
ham,  Alabama,  refused  to  heed  the  call  of  the 
union  and  remained  at  work,  keeping  fires 
under  the  furnaces  of  the  Indiana  Steel 
Company."  "It  is  unfortunate,"  says  Mr. 
Epstein,  "that  often  a  race  issue  is  made  of  a 
purely  labor  question." 

It  has  been  charged  that  at  various  times 
deliberate  attempts  have  been  made  to  foment 
racial  antagonisms,  not  only  against  Negroes, 
but  against  and  among  "foreigners"  in  order 
to  divide  labor  and  make  organization  diffi 
cult,  if  not  impossible.  On  November  2d  a 
despatch  attributed  to  the  Universal  News 
Service  quoted  "  State  -  Attorney  Hoyne"  as 
saying  that  steel-mills  of  the  Chicago  dis 
trict  had  employed  a  detective  agency  to 
foment  violence  during  the  strike.  Complaint 
against  the  agency  had  been  made  by  Edward 
.N.  Nockels,  secretary  of  the  Chicago  Federa- 

206 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

tion  of  Labor,  who  "charged  the  concern 
employed  scores  of  men  throughout  the  steel 
district,  who  were  instructed  to  create  race 
hatred  between  Negroes  and  whites  and 
urge  workmen  to  violence."  Mr.  Hoyne 
was  quoted  as  having  said:  "There  is  no 

doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  Service, 

through  its  operatives,  was  engaged  in  stirring 
up  riots.  Its  operatives  destroyed  or  advo 
cated  the  destruction  of  property,  aroused 
antagonism  between  different  groups  of 
strikers,  and  employed  sluggers.  The  agency 
admitted  that  it  was  employed  by  the  Steel 
and  Tube  Company  of  America,  but  they 
deny  knowledge  of  the  methods  of  the 


concern.'2 


Much  of  the  mistaken  "Americanization" 
propaganda  conducted  by  influential  news 
papers  endeavored  to  create  an  issue  of 
industrial  "loyalty"  as  between  American- 
born  workers  who  stood  by  their  companies 
and  foreign-born  workers  who  joined  unions 
and  struck.  Not  infrequently,  in  the  course 
of  such  realignments,  it  was  discovered  that 
the  Negro  was  a  real  "American"  and  the 
foreign-born  white  man  was  the  alien.  In 
this  play  of  industrial  forces  the  status  of 
racial  groups  was  relative  to  purely  economic 

207 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

motives.  In  the  South  it  is  the  Negro  who 
is  alien.  In  the  North  the  Negro  is  often 
"American,"  as  opposed  to  those  who  would 
be  considered  his  superiors  south  of  the  Ohio 
River.  The  dangers  are  obvious  of  such 
irresponsible  industrial  leadership  as  seeks  to 
control  labor  through  hatreds  and  ignorance. 
These  dangers  would  be  obvious,  even  if 
there  were  not  Atlanta,  East  St.  Louis,  and 
Chicago  to  stand  as  dramatic  warnings. 
That  the  Negro  has  come  to  realize  how 
closely  his  status  is  bound  up  with  equality 
of  industrial  opportunity  there  is  abundant 
testimony.  Mr.  Carl  Sandburg  points  out 
that  "it  is  economic  equality  that  gets  the 
emphasis  in  the  speeches  and  the  wrritings 
of  the  colored  people  themselves."  And  he 
lists  the  new  doors  of  opportunity  which 
were  opened  to  Negroes  in  Chicago  in  the 
two  years  preceding  the  Chicago  riots  of 
1919,  among  them  foundries,  tanneries,  freight- 
warehouses,  automobile-repair  shops,  a  mat 
tress-factory,  gas-meter  inspectorships.  The 
Negro  has  been  engaged  in  conquering  and 
making  his  own  new  industrial  fields.  That 
development  was  bound  to  come  in  time. 
It  wras  undoubtedly  accelerated  by  the  World 
War,  as  much  as  fifty  years,  in  the  estimation 

208 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

of  a  number  of  observers.  One  fruit  of  the 
acceleration  was  acute  conflict  which  came 
of  the  same  sort  of  maladjustment  that  at 
tended  the  influx  of  immigrant  labor  from 
abroad.  What  fostered  the  violence  and  the 
industrial  riots  of  1919,  some  of  them  errone 
ously  called  race  riots,  was  the  unduly  sensi 
tive,  in  fact,  morbid,  state  of  the  public 
mind  with  regard  to  color.  It  rests  very 
largely  with  labor,  white  and  colored,  whether 
the  divisions  that  have  caused  havoc  are  to 
be  perpetuated  and  made  irreconcilable.  The 
broadest  path  toward  harmonization  of  racial 
differences  in  the  future  lies  in  labor  organi 
zation;  As  soon  as  a  community  of  interest 
is  recognized  between  white  and  colored 
workers,  as  it  was  recognized  in  the  heart  of 
the  South,  in  Bogalusa,  Louisiana,  race  prej 
udice  fades  into  its  proper  place  as  a  bogy, 
a  set  of  ungoverned  and  unanalyzed  emotions, 
which  can  be  stimulated  to  the  detriment 
of  the  people  who  harbor  those  emotions. 
In  more  than  one  place  the  color  line  is 
being  swept  irresistibly  out  of  labor  organi 
zations. 

"We  all  know  there  are  unions  in  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  that  have  "their 
feet  in  the  twentieth  century  and  their  heads 

14  209 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

in  the  sixteenth  century,"  said  the  secretary 
of  the  Stockyards  Labor  Council  of  Chicago, 
according  to  Mr.  Sandburg.  The  same  in 
vestigator  quotes  one  of  the  officers  of  a  pack 
ing  company  as  saying:  "In  the  yards  it  is 
not  a  race  question  at  all.  It  is  a  labor- 
union  question!"  The  question  is  still  de 
bated  whether  the  Negro  is  or  is  not  a  "good 
union  man."  In  fact,  the  Negro  was  and  has 
been  shown  to  be  systematically  discriminated 
against,  until  the  industrial  weight  of  his 
numbers  and  his  competence  made  itself 
felt.  If  many  Negroes  are  not  now  good 
union  men,  it  is  because  they  have  never, 
despite  their  interest  and  their  desire,  been 
given  opportunity  to  have  an  effective  part  in 
the  American  labor  movement. 


n 

Housing 

What  was  mainly  a  labor  and  an  industrial 
readjustment  on  a  large  scale  during  and 
immediately  following  the  World  War  was 
complicated  by  the  absence  of  plans  for 
decently  housing  the  immigrants.  As  Mr. 

Epstein  has  shown  of  Pittsburgh,  the  bulk 

210 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

of  Negro  laborers  wno  came  North  fell 
between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty. 
Rents  were  abnormally  high  and  the  large 
number  of  unmarried  men  lived  under  un 
sanitary  conditions.  Thus,  of  390  Negroes 
Mr.  Epstein  examined,  57  lived  in  rooms 
housing  more  than  6  people  and  98  in  rooms 
occupied  by  4  persons.  Of  conditions  in 
rooming-houses,  Mr.  Epstein  noted  that 
13  per  cent,  of  the  men  without  families, 
who  came  under  his  observation,  slept  three 
or  more  in  one  bed,  and  "in  many  instances, 
houses  in  which  these  rooms  are  located 
are  dilapidated  dwellings  with  the  paper 
torn  off,  the  plaster  sagging  from  the  naked 
lath,  the  windows  broken,  the  ceiling  low 
and  damp,  and  the  whole  room  dark,  stuffy, 
and  unsanitary."  Some  of  the  rooms  "with 
more  than  six  people  sleeping  in  them  at 
one  time  have  practically  no  openings  for 
either  light  or  air."  In  Chicago,  as  elsewhere, 
the  planlessness  with  which  Northern  indus 
trial  cities  met  the  Southern  Negro  occasioned 
overcrowding,  and  an  overflow  of  the  Negro 
residence  district.  Branded  as  an  alien  and 
an  interloper,  the  Negro  was  also  made  to 
seem  an  invader  of  white  residence  districts. 

"Most   of   the   Negro    workmen,"    said    The 

211 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Neic  York  Tribune  in  its  despatch  warning 
of  industrial  conflict  about  Gary,  "live  in  a 
section  of  the  city  adjoining  that  of  the 
foreign  element,  and  bitterness  has  been  mani 
fested  since  the  first  call  of  the  walkout." 
Mr.  Sandburg  listed  housing  as  the  first 
of  three  "radical  and  active  factors,"  in  any 
American  city  where  the  racial  situation 
was  critical. 

Antagonism  against  competing  labor  is  eas 
ily  made  to  accompany  hatred  of  alien  neigh 
bors.  In  Chicago  the  influx  of  Negroes  was 
accompanied  by  aggressive  propaganda  in 
the  newspapers  and  in  meetings,  many  of 
them  held  secretly,  urging  white  men  to 
stand  firm  against  the  "invasion"  of  their 
districts  by  Negroes.  Undoubtedly  it  was 
to  the  advantage  of  certain  real-estate  specu 
lators  to  create  a  state  of  mind  bordering 
on  panic  among  property-owners.  Property 
was  sold  at  abnormally  low  prices  and  im 
mediately  thereafter  rose  in  value.  Of  the 
so-called  Black  Belt  in  Chicago,  Mr.  Sand 
burg  wrote:  "There  seem  to  be  certain 
preposterous  axioms  of  real-estate  exchange 
governing  this  district  and  no  others  in 
Chicago.  These  axioms  might  be  stated 
thus: 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

"  (1)  Sell  at  a  loss  and  the  rent  goes  higher, 
and 

"(2)  The  larger  the  number  of  colored 
persons  ready  to  pay  higher  rentals  the  lower 
the  realty  values  slump." 

In  this  peculiar  game  the  Negro  was  as 
much  a  victim  as  he  was  in  the  contest  of 
capital  and  labor.  Bombing  of  Negro  resi 
dences  during  the  early  months  of  1919  was 
variously  attributed  to  "race  feeling"  and 
to  the  conflict  of  rival  real-estate  interests. 
The  question  of  politics  was  also  raised 
when  the  bombings  were  referred  to  as  part 
of  a  campaign  to  terrorize  the  Negro  out 
of  settling  and  becoming  a  political  power  in 
the  Third  as  well  as  in  the  Second  Ward. 
In  at  least  one  case  a  bomb  was  exploded, 
not  in  the  Negro  district,  but  in  front  of  the 
house  of  a  white  real-estate  owner  who  had 
been  warned  to  get  rid  of  Negro  tenants  on 
his  property. 

The  industrial  implications  of  inadequate 
housing  for  Negro  migrants  were  emphasized 
in  various  ways.  For  the  congestion  and 
consequent  overflow  of  the  Chicago  Negro- 
residence  district  the  packing  and  other 
companies  which  had  imported  colored  work 
ers  were  partly  responsible.  Yet,  although 

213 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

the  dangerous  effects  of  the  encroachment 
of  colored  residents  upon  white  districts  were 
repeatedly  pointed  out,  no  intelligent  effort 
was  made  to  provide  homes  for  the  colored 
people.  To  the  bitterness  felt  and  expressed 
by  union  men  of  Chicago  was  added  the 
panic  of  property-owners.  "The  profiteering 
meat-packers  of  Chicago,"  said  John  Fitz- 
patrick  of  the  Chicago  Federation  of  Labor, 
"are  responsible  for  the  race  riots  which  have 
disgraced  our  city.  It  is  the  outcome  of  their 
deliberate  attempt  to  disrupt  the  union-labor 
movement  in  the  yards"  (Chicago  Tribune, 
August  18,  1919). 

Yet  these  riots  were  almost  universally 
spoken  of  in  connection  with  housing.  As 
early  as  July  13th,  weeks  before  the  out 
break  occurred,  The  Chicago  Herald-Examiner 
published  an  account  of  a  suit  for  damages 
brought  against  a  property-owners'  associa 
tion  by  a  Negro  whose  property  had  been 
bombed.  Four  "real-estate  men"  connected 
with  the  Kenwood  Property  Owners'  Asso 
ciation  were  made  defendants  of  the  suit  and 
the  plaintiff's  attorney  asserted  that  "the 
men  who  placed  the  bomb  are  in  the  employ 
of  real-estate  men  to  frighten  Negroes  out  of 
Kenwood."  As  late  as  October,  1919,  the 

214 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

anti-Negro  propaganda  found  expression  in  a 
mass-meeting  of  two  thousand  persons  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Kenwood  and  Hyde 
Park  Property  Owners'  Association.  The 
treasurer  of  the  organization  "precipitated 
the  climax  of  the  meeting  when  he  requested 
all  who  would  work  to  free  the  district  of 
Negroes  to  stand  up.  With  one  accord, 
every  man  and  woman  arose  with  shouts" 
(Chicago  Herald-Examiner,  October  21,1919). 
The  threatened  "Negro  influx"  in  the  white 
residential  district  about  Michigan,  Calumet, 
and  Vincent  Avenues  and  Grand  Boulevard 
assumed  a  different  complexion  when  a  Negro 
lawyer,  representing  a  committee  of  Negro 
residents,  explained  that  colored  people  would 
willingly  enough  leave  white  districts  "if  suit 
able  quarters  and  reasonable  rentals  could 
be  provided  any  place  in  the  city  where  the 
Negroes  could  be  to  themselves"  (Chicago 
Herald-Examiner,  October  25,  1919).  "The 
interchange  of  ideas  took  place  frankly  and  in  a 
friendly  spirit,"  at  this  meeting,  and,  when  the 
meeting  adjourned,  "a  vote  of  thanks  was  ten 
dered  the  Negroes  for  their  spirit  of  fairness 
and  open-mindedness"  (Chicago  Tribune,  Oc 
tober  «25,  1919). 

J.   Gray  Lucas,    representing  the   colored 

215 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

residents,  intelligently  and  simply  formulated 
the  problems  before  the  meeting.  "The 
white  man  controls  capital  and  regulates 
values,"  he  was  quoted  as  saying.  "If  your 
property  values  go  down,  it  is  your  own 
fault.  If  a  Negro  family  moves  into  a  white 
block,  every  one  else  sacrifices  his  interests 
in  a  panic  and  runs  away.  You  ask  what  you 
can  do  for  the  colored  man.  You  must 
offer  him  a  better  place  to  live  at  a  more 
reasonable  price  than  he  is  now  paying. 
Then  he  \vill  be  glad  to  move.  He  does  not 
invade  the  white  district  because  he  wants 
white  neighbors,  but  simply  because  he  wants 
the  most  comfort  and  the  best  home  he  can 
get  for  his  money." 

The  trouble  which  had  originated  in  Chi 
cago's  industrial  laissez-faire,  which  had  been 
inflated  to  a  grotesque  menace  by  real-estate 
speculators,  by  honest  but  stupid  panic  due 
to  the  press,  by  political  greed,  and  a  small 
residue  of  malevolence,  seemed  here  to  have 
been  brought  into  some  sort  of  light.  For 
property-owners,  as  for  labor  -  unionists,  it 
was  made  glaringly  evident  that  color  and 
the  habits  of  thought  which  come  from 
emphasizing  color  distinctions  must  be  sub 
ordinated  to  the  need  for  joint  consideration 

216 


THE  NEGRO  IN  INDUSTRY 

of  common  difficulties.  For  white  folk  to 
talk  of  segregating  the  Negro  is  to  invite 
disabilities  and  difficulties  for  themselves 
in  American  cities.  Even  such  an  influx  of 
Negro  immigrants  as  war  industry  brought  to 
Chicago  could  be  considered  and  dealt  with, 
not  in  the  fashion  of  big  stick  and  repression, 
but  in  open  meeting  and  frank  discussion. 
The  conclusion  wrhich  has  been  pointed  for 
white  labor  is  no  less  plain  than  that  which 
stared  Chicago's  property-owners  in  the  face. 
Not  only  the  Negro's  position  in  industry, 
but  the  orderliness  with  which  new  forms 
of  society  are  devised,  depends  upon  the 
Negro's  sense  of  his  real  share  in  the  building 
of  American  civilization.  He  has  been  by 
force  of  circumstance  inducted  into  the  techni 
cal  and  social  complexities  of  industrialism. 
He  may  be  made  a  valuable  source  of  power 
and  inventiveness,  or  he  may  be  driven  to 
the  self-defense  which  means  destruction  of 
the  society  which  provokes  it.  The  housing 
problem  occasioned  by  the  immigration  to 
Northern  cities  was  incidental  to  a  rapid 
change.  It  brought  the  residents  of  cities 
up  to  a  set  of  problems  that  labor-unionists 
and  industrialists  had  already  begun  to  formu 
late  for  themselves. 

217 


VIII 

THE  AMERICAN   CONGO 

TT  will  he  many  years,  perhaps,  before  the 
story  of  the  " freed"  Negro  in  the  Southern 
states  is  written  down  intelligibly,  trimmed 
of  the  animosity  which  imputes  to  Northern 
commercialism  or  to  Southern  aristocracy 
an  undue  burden  of  responsibility  for  oppres 
sion.  In  a  time  when  race  questions  are 
being  furiously  agitated,  when  a  northward 
migration  is  in  progress  and  the  political 
scene  vibrates  to  the  mention  or  thought  of 
color,  interpretation  becomes  hazardous.  It 
is  possible,  however,  to  sift  the  miscellany 
that  masquerades  as  news  and  to  begin  clear 
ing  the  sadly  blotted  and  obscured  record. 
A  detached  mind,  unacquainted  with  his 
torical,  economic,  or  emotional  determinants, 
entering  upon  such  a  task,  and  taking  Ameri 
can  professions  at  something  like  face  value, 
could  not  fail  to  find  conditions  prevailing 
in  1920  so  sadly  at  variance  with  current 

218 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

conceptions  of  Americanism  or  civilization 
as  almost  to  deprive  the  words  of  their  mean 
ing.  Innumerable  brutalities  have  been  set 
down  in  glaring  letters  against  white  and 
black  men.  But  it  is  the  white  men  who 
avowedly  dominate;  their  press  creates  the 
popular  sentiment  which  sets  the  cultural 
tone  of  the  South;  it  is  the  white  man's 
courts  and  the  white  man's  juries  which 
administer  law;  it  is,  finally,  white  soldiers 
whose  bullets  and  bayonets  are  called  for  to 
preserve  or  to  restore  order.  In  the  cir 
cumstances,  one  step  toward  setting  the 
record  clear  would  consist  in  an  examination 
of  the  white  man's  records  and  processes 
for  signs  of  chronic  racial  maladjustment; 
for  such  maladjustment  can  be  shown  endemic 
in  many  of  the  Southern  states,  and  not  only 
expresses  itself  dramatically  and  tragically, 
but  occasions  the  diffusion  of  race  problems 
over  the  entire  land.  However  true  it  is 
that  floods  or  the  plague  of  boll  weevils  in 
Southwestern  cotton-fields  starved  out  Ne 
groes,  it  was  still  the  Negro's  position  in 
society,  the  treatment  accorded  him  as  pro 
ducer  and  as  human  being  which  impelled 
him  to  go  North.  "The  treatment  accorded 
the  Negro  always  stood  second,  when  not 

219 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

first,  among  the  reasons  given  by  Negroes 
for  leaving  the  South,"  wrote  Mr.  W.  T.  B. 
Williams.1  "I  talked  with  all  classes  of 
colored  people  from  Virginia  to  Louisiana — 
farm-hands,  tenants,  farmers,  hack-drivers, 
porters,  mechanics,  barbers,  merchants,  in 
surance  men,  teachers,  heads  of  schools, 
ministers,  druggists,  physicians,  and  lawyers — 
and  in  every  instance  the  matter  of  treatment 
came  to  the  front  voluntarily.  This  is  the 
all-absorbing,  burning  question  among  Ne 
groes.  For  years  no  group  of  the  thoughtful, 
intelligent  class  of  Negroes,  at  any  rate, 
have  met  for  any  purpose  without  finally 
drifting  into  some  discussion  of  their  treat 
ment  at  the  hands  of  white  people."  It  would 
be  possible  to  draw  up  an  indictment  of  that 
treatment  by  emphasizing  isolated  brutali 
ties,  such  as  the  burning  at  stake  of  fourteen 
colored  men  in  the  United  States  in  the  year 
1919.  The  details  of  many  lynchings  have 
seared  the  pages  on  which  they  were  described 
and  could  again  be  made  to  evoke  a  thrill 
of  horror  from  readers.  But  the  record  de 
mands  not  stories  of  horror  alone;  it  requires 
some  exposition  of  motive.  Violence  is  merely 

1  Import  of  W.  T.  B.  Williams,  Negro  Migration  in  1916-17.     U.  S. 
Department  of  Labor. 

220 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

a  means  to  an  end,  even  if  that  end  be  the 
glutting  of  passion. 

In  any  civilization  where  questions  of  per 
sonal  freedom  were  so  closely  hound  to  eco 
nomic  considerations  as  in  the  pre-Civil 
War  South,  those  economic  considerations 
were  bound  to  exert  influence  even  when 
apparently  the  connection  had  been  broken. 
The  endeavor  to  keep  the  Negro  in  economic 
subjection  through  the  enactment  of  the 
"Black  Codes"  is  now  an  old  story.  Yet 
old  stories  repeat  themselves.  "The  report 
of  the  Attorney-General  for  the  year  1907 
contains  a  list  of  eighty-three  complaints 
of  peonage  pending  in  the  Department  of 
Justice,"  says  Mr.  Lafayette  M.  Hershaw.1 
It  is  worth  while  to  quote  Justice  Brewer's 
definition  of  peonage  as  it  is  given  by  Mr. 
Hershaw:  "It  may  be  defined  as  a  status 
or  condition  of  compulsory  service  based 
upon  the  indebtedness  of  the  peon  to  the 
master.  The  basal  fact  is  indebtedness.  One 
fact  exists  universally,  all  were  indebted 
to  their  masters.  This  was  the  cord  by 
which  they  seemed  bound  to  their  masters'  ser 
vice."  "Therefore,"  comments  Mr.  Hershaw, 

1  Lafayette   M.  Hershaw,  Peonage.    Occasional  Papers,  No.  15, 
The  American  Negro  Academy.    Washington,  1915. 

221 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

"wherever  we  have  compulsory  service  for 
debt  we  have  peonage,  it  matters  not  by 
wrhat  method  the  result  is  obtained."  The 
definition  is  pertinent  in  view  of  a  letter  pub 
lished  in  The  Memphis  Commercial  Appeal, 
early  in  1919,  and  signed  "A  Southerner." 

"In  certain  parts  of  the  South,"  says  the 
writer,  "men  who  consider  themselves  men 
of  honor  and  would  exact  a  bloody  expiation 
of  one  who  would  characterize  them  as  com 
mon  cheats  do  not  hesitate  to  boast  that  they 
rob  the  Negroes  by  purchasing  their  cotton 
at  prices  that  are  larcenous,  by  selling  goods 
to  them  at  extortionate  figures,  and  even  by 
padding  their  accounts  with  a  view  of  keeping 
them  always  in  debt.  A  protest  from  a  Negro 
against  tactics  of  this  kind  is  met  with  a 
threat  of  force.  Justice  at  the  hands  of  a 
white  jury  in  sections  where  this  practice 
obtains  is  inconceivable.  Even  an  attempt  to 
carry  the  matter  into  the  courts  is  usually 
provocative  of  violence." 

"Apparently,  in  order  to  secure  his  labor," 
says  Mr.  W.  T.  B.  Williams  of  the  farm 
tenant  in  Mississippi,  "the  landlord  often 
will  not  settle  for  the  year's  work  till  late 
in  the  spring  when  the  next  crop  has  been 

'pitched.'     The   Negro   is   then  bound  hand 

222 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

and  foot  and  must  accept  the  landlord's 
terms.  It  usually  means  that  it  is  impossible 
for  him  to  get  out  of  the  landlord's  clutches, 
no  matter  how  he  is  being  treated.  In  many 
cases  the  Negro  does  not  dare  ask  for  a 
settlement."  And  later  Mr.  Williams  re 
marks:  "The  beating  of  farm-hands  on  the 
large  plantations  in  the  lower  South  is  so 
common  that  many  colored  people  look  upon 
every  great  plantation  as  a  peon  camp; 
and  in  sawmills  and  other  public  works  it 
is  not  at  all  unusual  for  bosses  to  knock 
Negroes  around  with  pieces  of  lumber  or 
anything  else  that  happens  to  come  handy." 
A  condition  of  servitude  and  oppression  is 
testified  to  by  a  number  of  observers.  Against 
this  dark  background  a  lurid  illumination 
was  thrown  from  the  riots  which  occurred 
in  Phillips  County,  Arkansas,  in  October  of 
1919.  As  most  phases  of  the  strained  re 
lations  between  the  races  have  eventuated 
in  violence,  so  the  exploitation  of  Negro 
farm  tenants  was  bound  to  produce  it. 

Following  closely  upon  the  sacking  of  the 
court-house  in  Omaha,  Nebraska,  with  the 
barely  unsuccessful  attempt  to  hang  the 
mayor,  the  affray  which  occurred  on  Septem 
ber  30th  in  a  small  Arkansas  town  and  pro- 

223 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

voked  conflict  between  white  and  colored 
men  did  not  at  first  attract  much  attention. 
In  the  ensuing  days,  to  October  6th,  more 
and  more  alarming  reports  shocked  the  coun 
try  into  wakefulness.  What  was  first  de 
scribed  as  a  race  riot  became  a  "revolt," 
an  "uprising,"  a  plot  by  Negroes  to  "mas 
sacre  all  whites."  "All  Whites  Marked  for 
Slaughter,"  announced  a  scarehead  of  The 
New  York  Evening  Telegram  on  October  6th. 
The  New  York  Times  followed  suit  with 
"Planned  Massacre  of  Whites  To-day."  The 
New  York  Tribune  announced  "Negro  Plot 
to  Massacre  All  WTiites  Found."  The  Memphis 
Commercial  Appeal  found  that  "Negroes  Had 
Planned  General  Slaughter"  and  The  Arkansas 
Gazette  had  blazoned  the  assertions  that 
"Vicious  Blacks  Were  Planning  Great  Up 
rising — All  Evidence  Points  to  Carefully 
Planned  Rebellion."  Rebellion,  revolt,  insur 
rection,  massacre,  plot,  night-riding,  "Negro 
Paul  Reveres "  —every  word  that  might  sug 
gest  the  clandestine,  the  violent,  the  menac 
ing,  was  lavishly  used  to  describe  conditions 
in  Arkansas.  Throughout  the  United  States 
the  impression  was  created  by  Associated 
Press  despatches  and  by  numerous  corre 
spondents  that  Negroes  had  organized  against 

feM 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

white  men  and  Lad  planned  to  murder  and  to 
rob. 

A  town  called  Hoop  Spur,  but  a  few  miles 
from  the  Mississippi  River  and  some  twenty- 
five  miles  southwest  of  Helena,  was  the  scene 
of  the  initial  outbreak.  A  shooting  affray 
had  taken  place  here  between  Negroes  as 
sembled  in  a  country  church  and  two  white 
men  with  a  Negro  prisoner  in  an  automobile 
outside.  The  white  men,  W.  A.  Adkins,  a 
" special  agent"  for  the  Missouri  Pacific 
Railroad,  and  Charles  Pratt,  deputy  sheriff, 
were  said  to  be  on  their  way  to  arrest  a 
"white  bootlegger"  or  whisky-smuggler,  who 
had  been  causing  trouble  in  Elaine.  The 
white  men,  it  was  asserted,  "had  trouble 
with  their  car"  and  stopped  just  outside  the 
Negro  church  (Arkansas  Gazette,  October  4th). 
There  would  seem  to  be  a  strong  element  of 
coincidence  in  the  automobile  trouble  which 
would  halt  a  white  deputy  sheriff  on  a  country 
road  just  outside  a  church  in  which  a  meeting 
of  Negroes  was  being  held.  From  that  point 
accounts  differ.  The  white  press  asserted 
that  the  meeting  had  been  maturing  its  con 
spiracy  plot,  and  suspected  that  their  plans 
had  been  discovered.  The  Negroes,  it  was 
asserted,  "opened  fire,  killing  Adkins,  and 

15  225 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

severely  wounding  Pratt."  A  despatch  from 
Helena,  of  October  5th,  credited  to  the 
Associated  Press,  spoke  of  the  widespread 
uprising  which  had  been  planned,  and  asserted 
that  at  Hoop  Spur  "there  were  one  hundred 
armed  Negroes  in  the  church  at  the  scene 
of  the  shooting,"  of  whom  some  were  said  to 
be  women  "carrying  automatic  revolvers 
in  their  stockings"  (Arkansas  Gazette,  Octo 
ber  6,  1919).  Fifty  thousand  rounds  of 
ammunition  were  announced  as  having  been 
found  in  the  Branch  Normal  School,  a  colored 
institution  of  Pine  Bluff.  A  subsequent  de 
spatch  on  October  6th,  inconspicuously  printed, 
explained  that  the  ammunition  had  been 
sent  there  by  the  government  for  the  training 
of  student  officers  during  the  World  War, 
and  the  store  had  been  found  intact.  But 
the  initial  report  of  the  finding  of  the  ammuni 
tion,  the  Associated  Press  reported,  had  led 
"authorities  here  to  believe  the  contemplated 
uprising  was  of  more  than  a  local  nature, 
possibly  planned  for  the  entire  South"  (Arkan 
sas  Gazette,  October  6th). 

Panic  rumor  spread.  The  country-side  was 
roused.  The  Governor  of  Arkansas  called 
for  United  States  troops.  White  planters 
and  their  friends  organized  themselves  into 

226 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

posses  and  a  hunt  for  "niggers"  began. 
Fighting  took  place  in  Elaine,  next  to  Hoop 
Spur,  where  armed  white  men  maintained 
headquarters.  No  accurate  record  was  kept 
of  the  number  of  colored  men  killed,  "but 
according  to  one  member  of  the  posse  from 
Helena,  who  came  in  from  the  scene  of  the 
fighting  late  yesterday,  'there  are  plenty  of 
them'  "  (Arkansas  Democrat)  October  2, 1919). 
"Possemen  from  various  towns,  after  numer 
ous  clashes  with  Negroes  yesterday  afternoon, 
had  gathered  at  Elaine  to  spend  the  night," 
said  the  same  newspaper;  furthermore  "the 
white  women  in  the  town  were  concentrated 
in  the  center  of  the  town  and  all  white  men 
stayed  on  guard  throughout  the  night." 
"Wild  rumors,"  reported  The  Arkansas  Ga 
zette  of  October  8th,  "were  abroad  in  Helena 
last  night  to  the  effect  that  Negroes  were 
armed  'somewhere'  and  would  attack  the 
outlying  homes  during  the  night.  Investiga 
tion  revealed  no  foundation  for  these  rumors." 
Harry  Cherry,  correspondent  of  The  Memphis 
Press,  reported  on  October  4th  that  he  had 
followed  "posses  and  soldiers  into  the  cane- 
brakes  in  search  of  Negro  desperadoes  who 
were  defying  the  officers."  He  reported  hav 
ing  seen  dead  bodies  lying  in  the  road  not 

227 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

far  from  Helena,  and  noted  further,  "En 
raged  citizens  fired  at  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
Negroes  as  they  road  [rode]  out  of  Helena 
toward  Elaine.  .  .  ."  "Every  one  of  the  five 
hundred  troops  who  went  to  Elaine  appeared 
anxious  to  get  into  battle  with  the  blacks," 
reported  a  correspondent  of  an  Arkansas 
newspaper  of  October  6th.  A  despatch  to 
The  Arkansas  Gazette  of  October  3d,  headed 
"Lynching  Discussed?"  reported  a  meeting 
of  Helena  business  men  at  the  court-house, 
from  which  newspaper  correspondents  had 
been  excluded.  "It  was  said  that  a  probable 
or  threatened  lynching  was  discussed." 

Under  the  circumstances  it  seems  a  euphem 
ism  to  compliment  the  white  people  of  Phil 
lips  County,  Arkansas,  on  the  absence  of 
race  hatred  among  them  and  to  speak  of 
their  calm  behavior  and  willingness  to  let 
the  law  take  its  course,  as  did  Mr.  Jack  C. 
Wilson,  executive  secretary  of  the  Mississippi 
Welfare  League,  who  had  come  to  see  how 
race  relations  were  administered  in  Arkansas. 
Meanwhile,  white  men  were  being  armed 
throughout  the  county  and  Negroes  disarmed. 
"More  than  three  hundred  special  deputy 
sheriffs  [white]  were  sworn  in  by  Sheriff 

Kitchens  and  sent  to  the  scene  of  the  insur 
es 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

rection"  (Arkansas  Gazette,  October  6th). 
Canebrakes  in  the  low-lying  lands  were 
searched  for  Negroes  who  had  fled,  and 
soldiers  "were  instructed  to  permit  any  black 
to  surrender,  but  to  shoot  to  kill  if  they  showed 
any  inclination  to  fight"  (Arkansas  Gazette, 
October  6th).  Furthermore,  all  Negroes  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  trouble  were  required  to 
show  passes  signed  by  army  officers,  and 
these  passes  "were  issued  only  when  the 
Negroes'  employers  would  vouch  for  them." 
This  fact  assumes  extraordinary  significance 
when  it  is  known  that  the  relations  of  em 
ployer  and  farm-hand,  of  landlord  and  tenant 
were  at  the  root  of  the  Phillips  County 
"massacre."  For  it  meant  that  the  employ 
ers,  or  landlords,  parties  to  the  trouble,  were 
given  what  under  the  circumstances  was 
the  enormous  power  of  sanctioning  or  declin 
ing  to  sanction  the  free  movement  of  their 
employees  or  tenants. 

White  Mississippians  took  the  opportunity 
for  improving  their  methods,  to  come  to 
Arkansas  for  study.  "County  officials  and 
other  representatives  from  various  towns  and 
counties  in  Mississippi,  including  Friar's  Point 
on  the  river,  Clarksdale,  Cleveland,  Tunica, 
Greenwood,  Sunnier,  and  Charleston,  were 

229 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

here  to-day  conferring  with  the  Committee 
of  Seven  as  to  the  methods  employed  in 
dealing  with  the  troubles  in  this  county" 
(Arkansas  Gazette,  October  8th).  It  will  be 
seen  that  the  conditions  which  prevailed  in 
Phillips  County,  Arkansas,  before  the  dis 
turbance  must  have  had  points  of  similarity 
to  the  state  of  affairs  in  other  parts  of  the 
South,  notably  Mississippi.  What  was  the 
explanation  of  those  conditions  as  it  was 
given  by  white  men? 

A  committee  of  seven  white  men,  apparently 
self-constituted,  but  "authorized"  by  the 
Governor  of  Arkansas  to  investigate  the 
disorders  in  Phillips  County,  published  a 
statement  through  one  of  its  members,  E.  M. 
Allen,  president  of  the  Helena  Business  Men's 
League  and  "owner  of  considerable  property" 
(Chicago  Tribune,  October  7th).  He  asserted 
that  the  trouble  in  Phillips  County  had  been 
not  a  race  riot,  but  "a  deliberately  planned 
insurrection  of  the  Negroes  against  the  whites, 
directed  by  an  organization  known  as  the 
Progressive  Farmers'  and  Household  Union 
of  America,  established  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
banding  Negroes  together  for  the  killing  of 
white  people"  Especial  emphasis  is  to  be 
given  this  statement,  coming  as  it  does  from 

230 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

a  "leading  business  man"  and  an  "owner  of 
considerable  property."  Formation  of  the 
Farmers'  Union  Mr.  Allen  attributed  to  Robert 
L.  Hill,  "a  Negro,  twenty-six  years  of  age, 
of  Winchester,  Arkansas,  who  saw  in  it  an 
opportunity  of  'easy  money."  Hill  first 
organized  a  lodge  at  Ratio  "because  his 
mother  happened  to  be  living  there."  He 
was  charged  by  Mr.  Allen  with  representing 
himself  to  the  Negroes  as  an  agent  of  the 
federal  government  deputized  to  call  the 
organization  into  existence.  "The  slogan  of 
the  organization  is/ We  battle  for  our  rights!' " 
Hill  was  charged  with  extorting  membership 
fees  from  ignorant  and  credulous  colored 
people.  The  Chicago  Tribune's  caption  de 
scribed  the  Phillips  County  riots  as  "The 
Harebrained  Plot  of  a  Negro  Wallingford— 
Amazing  Story  of  Scheme  to  Slay  All  Whites 
of  Arkansas  Bared."  At  least  two  white 
men  were  said  to  have  assisted  in  the  organi 
zation  of  the  Progressive  Farmers'  and  House 
hold  Union  of  America,  one  of  them  being 
O.  S.  Bratton  of  Little  Rock,  Arkansas,  who, 
according  to  The  Arkansas  Democrat  of  Octo 
ber  3d,  was  "charged  with  murder  in  con 
nection  with  the  death  of  W.  A.  Adkins," 
shot  outside  the  Negro  church  at  Hoop  Spur. 

231 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

In  an  article  in  The  Memphis  Press  of  October 
4th  O.  S.  Bratton  was  described  as  "a  Little 
Rock  lawyer  who  had  been  prominent  in 
Republican  politics,"  and  he  was  said  to  be 
"charged  with  being  implicated  in  the  murder 
of  O.  R.  Lilly,  real-estate  man,  and  also  with 
incensing  the  blacks."  "In  a  calmer  mood," 
reported  The  Arkansas  Gazette  of  the  same 
day,  "the  feeling  of  bitterness  against  Brat- 
ton,  seemed  to  have  somewhat  diminished,  and 
it  is  said  that  the  nature  of  the  documents 
found  in  his  possession  had  no  direct  bearing 
on  the  action  of  the  insurgent  Negroes, 
although  they  might  have  had  some  influence 
in  that  direction."  Nevertheless,  in  the  first 
heat  of  panic,  O.  S.  Bratton  had  been  charged 
with  murder  and  "brought  to  Helena  in 
chains"  (Arkansas  Democrat,  October  2d). 
"Feeling  against  him  is  bitter,  but  there  has 
so  far  been  no  indication  of  summary  action." 
The  charge  of  murder  and  incitement  to  riot 
evaporated  when  the  grand  jury  of  Phillips 
County  indicted  O.  S.  Bratton  on  a  charge 
of  barratry  or  inciting  unnecessary  lawsuits, 
and  this  dangerous  agitator,  murderer,  and 
insurrectionist  was  released  on  his  own  recog 
nizances. 

The    case    as    it    was    stated    against    the 

232 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

Negroes  of  Phillips  County  has  been  given 
in  some  detail.  They  were  insurrectionists 
and  had  planned  a  massacre  of  white  men. 
Their  "Progressive  Farmers'  and  Household 
Union  of  America"  was  formed  for  that  sole 
purpose  by  a  Negro  named  Hill,  who  had 
misrepresented  his  position  and  hoped  to 
profit  from  their  credulity.  The  plans  of  the 
organization  as  they  were  represented  in  the 
white  press  varied  from  the  slaughter  of 
every  white  man  in  the  state  of  Arkansas 
to  the  taking  over  of  the  land  in  Phillips 
County.  White  men  were  implicated  and 
were  accused  of  having  assisted  the  Negroes 
in  organizing.  One  of  the  white  men  was 
brought  to  Helena  in  chains,  charged  unoffi 
cially  with  murder,  but  subsequently  released 
under  a  perfunctory  indictment  for  barratry. 
Meanwhile,  at  least  five  white  men  and 
twenty-five  Negroes  had  been  killed  in  the 
turmoil.  In  the  case  against  the  Negroes 
as  it  appeared  in  the  white  press,  there  were, 
however,  certain  discrepancies.  Thus,  of  the 
meeting  of  Negroes  in  the  church  at  Hoop 
Spur,  The  Memphis  Commercial  Appeal  of 
October  3d  remarked  that  "the  Negroes 
were  meeting  in  this  church  Tuesday  night, 
as  is  their  custom.  ..."  Despite  the  asser- 

233 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

tion  of  E.  M.  Allen  that  the  Farmers'  Union 
had  been  established  "for  the  sole  purpose  of 
banding  Negroes  together  for  the  killing  of 
white  people,"  certain  other  purposes  appeared 
in  the  news  despatches.  "With  October  6th 
set  as  the  day  for  the  uprising,"  reported 
The  New  York  Globe  of  October  6th,  "Negro 
prisoners  are  said  to  have  confessed,  each 
member  of  the  organization  at  specified  places 
was  to  take  a  bale  of  cotton  by  that  date  to 
certain  prominent  landowners,  plantation- 
managers,  and  merchants  and  demand  a 
settlement" — in  other  words,  a  statement  of 
account.  It  will  be  recalled  that  denial  of 
"settlements,"  or  statements  of  account,  was 
one  of  the  means  referred  to  by  which  Negroes 
were  kept  in  debt  and  in  a  condition  closely 
approximating  peonage.  Further  light  is 
thrown  on  the  situation  by  a  statement  attrib 
uted  to  U.  S.  Bratton,  father  of  the  man 
who  was  brought  to  Helena  in  chains  (Mem- 
phis  Commercial  Appeal,  October  3d).  U.  S. 
Bratton  had  held  a  number  of  federal  offices, 
including  that  of  Assistant  United  States 
Attorney  and  postmaster.  Mr.  Bratton  said 
a  Negro  from  Ratio,  Arkansas,  had  asked 
Mr.  Bratton's  law  firm  to  represent  him 
and  a  number  of  other  Negroes.  It  was 

S34 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

arranged  that  the  son,  O.  S.  Bratton,  was  to 
meet  the  Negroes  "and  to  get  the  facts  from 
all  of  them  as  they  claimed  them  to  be,  after 
which  we  would  take  the  matter  up  with 
the  manager  and  see  if  some  amicable  settle 
ment  could  not  be  made."  He  found  that 
the  Negroes  were  claiming  "that  it  had  been 
impossible  for  them  to  obtain  itemized  state 
ments  of  accounts,  or  in  fact  to  obtain 
statements  at  all,  and  that  the  manager  was 
preparing  to  ship  their  cotton  (they  being 
share-croppers  and  having  a  half-interest 
therein)  off  without  settling  with  them  or  allow 
ing"  them  to  sell  their  half  of  the  crop  and 
pay  up  their  accounts.  As  we  were  informed, 
there  were  some  sixty-five  or  seventy  of  these 
share-croppers  who  desired  us  to  represent 
them.  If  it's  a  crime  to  represent  people 
in  an  effort  to  make  honest  settlements, 
then  he  [O.  S.  Bratton]  has  committed  a  crime. 
If  this  is  a  crime  in  a  country  where  we  have 
been  spending  our  money  and  the  lives  of  our 
boys  to  make  the  country  safe  for  democracy, 
we  do  not  understand  what  the  word  means. 
The  above  are  facts  which  a  full  investigation 
will  show  beyond  the  peradventure  of  a 
doubt,  and  we  court  the  fullest  investigation." 
U.  S.  Bratton  being  a  reputable  lawyer  of 

235 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Arkansas,  albeit  a  Republican  in  Democratic 
territory,  his  statement  strengthens  the  sup 
position  that  the  Negroes  of  Ratio,  at  least, 
had  some  other  motive  than  massacring  their 
white  landlords.  Despite  the  confident  as 
sertions  of  Arkansas  white  men  as  to  the 
purposes  of  the  Progressive  Farmers'  and 
Household  Union  of  America,  published  quota 
tions  from  the  literature  of  the  organization 
indicated  none  but  peaceable  intentions.  Thus 
the  object  of  the  union  was  to  be  "to  advance 
the  interests  of  the  Negro,  mentally  and  intel 
lectually,  and  to  make  him  a  better  citizen 
and  a  better  farmer"  (Arkansas  Gazette,  Octo 
ber  6th).  The  articles  of  incorporation  of 
the  union  had  been  drawn  "by  Williamson 
and  Williamson  of  Monticello,  white  men  and 
ex-slaveholders"  (Walter  F.  WTiite  in  The 
Nation,  December  6th).  In  this  connection 
it  is  significant  that  the  Committee  of  Seven 
found  among  the  "ringleaders"  of  the  move 
ment  "the  oldest  and  most  reliable  of  the 
Negroes  whom  we  have  known  for  the  past 
fifteen  years."  It  would  have  bren  strange, 
indeed,  if  these  men  had  lent  themselves  to  a 
conspiracy  "to  put  to  death  a  dozen  or  more 
prominent  white  men,  seize  the  land,  and 
generally  take  over  control  of  the  country," 

236 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

as  the  Committee  of  Seven  charged  (Asso 
ciated  Press  Despatch,  November  2d).  Ap 
parently  the  open  inquiry  courted  by  U.  S. 
Bratton  was  not  to  take  place.  As  Negro 
prisoners  were  brought  into  Helena  from  the 
stockade  in  which  they  had  been  confined 
in  Elaine,  plans  were  made  to  interrogate 
them.  "It  is  now  believed,"  said  The  Ar 
kansas  Gazette  of  October  8th,  "that  no  open 
hearings  of  the  cases  against  the  men  and 
women  charged  with  participating  in  the 
insurrection  will  be  held.  There  are  more 
than  three  hundred  separate  cases  to  be 
investigated,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  hear 
ings  can  be  expedited  if  held  privately." 

The  court  proceedings  during  the  trial  of 
the  Negro  insurrectionists,  in  the  course  of 
which  five  colored  men  were  found  guilty  of 
murder  in  the  first  degree  by  a  white  jury 
in  seven  minutes,  are  matters  which  might 
well  claim  a  separate  chapter.  "It  took  the 
jury  eight  minutes  to  return  a  verdict  against 
Frank  Hicks,"  said  The  Memphis  Commercial 
Appeal  of  November  4th,  "charged  with  the 
murder  of  Clinton  Lee,  a  citizen  of  Helena, 
near  Hoop  Spur  on  the  morning  of  October 
1st.  Hicks  was  found  'guilty  as  charged 
in  the  indictment,'  the  verdict  automatically 

237 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

sending  him  to  the  electric  chair.  But  that 
record  was  broken  in  the  gathering  afternoon 
darkness  when  a  jury  retired  at  5.32  to  decide 
the  fate  of  five  other  Negroes  charged  with 
the  murder  of  Lee.  Seven  minutes  later  they 
returned  a  verdict  finding  the  defendants 
guilty,  sending  them  to  the  electric  chair." 
It  will  be  recalled  that  the  trials  of  Negro 
farmers  were  held,  without  change  of  venue, 
in  the  very  county  in  which  the  disorders 
had  occurred,  by  juries  composed  of  white 
men,  from  which  Negroes  were  excluded. 
One  colored  man  was  sentenced  to  twenty- 
one  years  in  the  penitentiary.  He  had  been 
charged  with  first-degree  murder.  "Material 
witnesses  on  the  murder  charge  were  absent," 
said  The  Arkansas  Gazette  of  November  8th, 
"and  the  court  allowed  the  defendant  to 
plead  guilty  to  second-degree  murder.  The 
only  witness  to  the  murder  of  Corporal  Earls 
is  an  officer  recently  discharged  from  the  army, 
who  could  not  be  located  in  time  for  the  trial." 
It  is  almost  unbelievable  that  in  the  United 
States  a  man  could  be  convicted  and  sentenced 
to  twenty-one  years  in  prison  without  any 
witness  appearing  against  him.  Under  the 
circumstances  it  is  not  astonishing  that  the 
defendant  agreed  to  plead  guilty  to  second- 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

degree  murder  as  an  alternative  to  being 
sent  to  the  electric  chair.  A  correspondent 
of  The  Memphis  Commercial  Appeal  reported 
on  November  5th,  when  forty -eight  colored 
men  had  been  convicted,  of  whom  eleven 
were  sentenced  to  death,  "Progress  was  not 
as  rapid  as  expected  because  many  Negroes 
hesitated  before  pleading  guilty  to  the  charge 
of  second-degree  murder,  a  compromise  offered 
by  the  state."  The  despatch  is  full  of  matter 
which  reveals  the  way  of  white  juries  in 
Arkansas  with  Negro  defendants:  "The  first 
four  Negroes  arraigned  at  the  afternoon 
session  .  .  .  pleaded  not  guilty  when  the  state 
offered  to  compromise  with  them  if  they 
would  admit  guilt  to  a  second-degree  charge. 
'Call  a  jury,'  the  court  ordered,  but  before  a 
jury  was  organized  the  Negroes  changed 
their  minds.  They  pleaded  guilty  to  a  charge 
of  murder  in  the  second  degree  and  were 
sentenced  to  twenty-one  years  in  the  peni 
tentiary."  At  one  point  in  the  trials  "after 
Judge  Jackson  had  sentenced  twenty-four 
Negroes  for  five  years  each,"  the  district 
attorney  "arose  and  objected,"  saying:  "I 
do  not  think  these  Negroes  are  receiving 
sufficient  punishment.  These  Negroes  all 
were  at  the  home  of  Frank  Moore,  armed  and 

239 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

waiting."  In  the  offhand  fashion  of  Arkansas 
trial  procedure,  the  judge  replied,  "I  think 
five  years  is  enough,"  and  the  arraignments 
continued.  Unconscious  irony  laid  its  light 
touch  on  the  despatch  when  the  correspondent 
remarked,  toward  the  close,  "Expressions  of 
regret  over  the  necessity  of  condemning  so 
large  a  number  of  Negroes  is  [sic]  heard 
daily  on  the  streets  of  the  city  and  in  the 
court-room."  The  master  touch,  however, 
was  attributed  by  The  Arkansas  Gazette  of 
November  12th  to  Judge  Jackson.  The 
reader  will  recall  that  no  Negroes  were  in 
cluded  in  the  jury  which  was  convicting 
colored  men  of  murder.  "Frank  Moore," 
said  the  court,  "y°u  have  been  declared 
guilty  by  a  jury  of  your  own  choosing  of  murder 
in  the  first  degree.  .  .  ."  Judge  Jackson 
denied  new  trials  to  the  twelve  Negroes 
who  had  been  sentenced  to  die  by  electro 
cution.  But  the  Governor  of  Arkansas  post 
poned  the  executions  in  order  to  ajlovr  appeals 
to  be  filed  in  their  behalf.  A  petition  for 
habeas  corpus,  prepared  for  filing  in  the  event 
that  that  should  be  necessary,  in  the  federal 
district  court  in  behalf  of  Frank  Moore,  one  of 
the  condemned  men,  draws  together  a  number 
of  the  threads  of  this  narrative.  The  peti- 

240 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

tion,  after  reciting  that  plantation-owners 
had  not  only  declined  to  give  share-croppers 
itemized  statements  of  their  indebtedness 
for  supplies  purchased  from  plantation  stores 
and  refused  to  let  the  share-croppers  dispose 
of  their  crops,  "but  themselves  sell  and 
dispose  of  the  same  at  such  prices  as  they 
please,  and  then  give  to  the  Negroes  no 
account  thereof,  in  this  way  keeping  them 
down,  poverty  -  stricken,  and  under  their 
control."  Learning  of  the  employment  of 
Mr.  U.  S.  Bratton  as  attorney  by  Negroes  of 
a  neighboring  plantation,  the  petitioner  and 
his  associates  "decided  to  hold  a  meeting 
with  the  view  of  seeing  him  while  there,  and 
engaging  him  as  an  attorney  to  protect  their 
interests."  While  they  were  assembled  in 
their  church,  "parties  from  the  outside  com 
menced  shooting  in  the  house,  through  the 
windows,  fired  many  shots,  shot  out  the 
lights,  and  shot  one  of  the  members,  all  of 
whom,  so  far  as  petitioner  knows,  were 
unarmed."  The  church  was  subsequently 
burned  by  armed  white  men, "thus  destroying 
the  indubitable  evidence  of  the  assault  upon 
said  society."  The  petitioner  asserts  that 
he  and  other  colored  prisoners  were  frequently 
taken  before  the  Committee  of  Seven  "and 

16  241 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

were  tortured  both  by  whipping,  beating, 
the  application  of  electricity  and  strangling 
drugs  to  compel  them  to  admit  guilt  which 
did  not  exist  and  to  testify  against  each 
other;  that  this  torturing  was  a  frequent 
occurrence,  many  scars  from  which  petitioner 
still  bears  upon  his  body  ..."  and  that  before 
the  "body  called  the  grand  jury,  composed 
exclusively  of  white  men,"  the  petitioner 
and  other  Negro  prisoners  were  frequently 
carried  "in  an  effort  to  extract  from  them 
false  incriminating  admissions  and  to  testify 
against  each  other,  and  that  both  before  and 
after  they  were  frequently  whipped  and 
tortured.  .  .  ."  The  men  in  charge  of  the 
prisoners,  this  petition  continues,  "had  some 
way  of  learning  when  the  evidence  given  or 
statements  made  was  unsatisfactory  to  the 
grand  jury,  and  this  was  always  followed  by 
beating  and  whipping."  The  attorney  ap 
pointed  by  the  court  to  defend  the  petitioner 
"did  not  consult  with  him  or  the  other  de 
fendants,  took  no  steps  to  prepare  for  their  de 
fense,  asked  nothing  about  their  witnesses " 

The  trial  "closed,  so  far  as  the  evidence  was 
concerned,  with  the  state's  witnesses  alone"; 
and  the  jury  "retired  just  long  enough  to 
write  a  verdict  of  guilty  of  murder  in  the 

242 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

first  degree,  as  charged,  and  returned  with  it— 
not  being  out  exceeding  from  three  to  five 
minutes;  the  whole  proceeding,  from  begin 
ning  to  end,  occupied  about  three-fourths  of 
an  hour. .  .  ."  There  are  certain  statements 
in  the  petition  for  habeas  corpus  which 
might  have  been  hearsay,  but  they  were 
doubtless  verifiable  by  the  petitioner's  at 
torney.  Thus,  it  is  stated  that  it  had  been 
the  practice  of  thirty  years'  standing  not  to 
choose  Negroes  to  serve  on  juries,  "notwith 
standing  the  Negro  population  there  exceeds 
the  white  population  by  more  than  five  to  one, 
and  that  a  large  proportion  of  them  [Negroes] 
are  electors  and  possess  the  legal,  moral,  and  in 
tellectual  qualifications  required  or  necessary 
for  jurors;  that  the  exclusion  of  said  Negroes 
from  the  juries  was  at  all  times  intentional, 
and  because  of  their  color,  of  their  being 
Negroes;  that  such  was  the  case  of  the 
grand  jury  by  which  petitioner  and  his  co- 
defendants  were  indicted,  and  of  the  petit  jury 
that  pronounced  them  guilty."1  The  narra 
tive  of  what  occurred  in  Phillips  County, 
Arkansas,  in  October  of  the  year  1919  would 

1  Substantially  the  same  facts  were  recited  in  a  brief  filed  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Arkansas  petitioning  for  a  new  trial  for  Frank 
Moore  and  other  Negroes. 

S4S 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

be  incomplete  without  some  reference  to  the 
white  attorney,  TL  S.  Bratton,  and  his  two 
sons,  Capt.  Guy  G.  Bratton  and  O.  S. 
Bratton,  who  were  so  prominently  identified 
in  press  reports  with  the  "Negro  insurrection." 
Mr.  Bratton1  asked  of  Senator  Charles  Curtis 
of  Kansas  that  a  federal  investigation  be 
undertaken  of  affairs  in  Phillips  County.  In 
explanation  of  his  request  he  recited  three 
circumstances:  "(1)  My  name  and  family 
have  been  brought  into  and  charged  with 
being  responsible  for  the  recent  troubles  in 
Phillips  County,  Arkansas.  One  of  my  sons, 
O.  S.  Bratton,  without  reason  therefor,  came 
near  being  lynched,  having  been,  without  any 
reason  therefor,  arrested  and  kept  in  jail 
for  thirty-one  days,  without  any  examination, 
or  without  opportunity  being  given  for  bail, 
or  without  even  being  informed  of  the  charge 
held  against  him,  and  where  it  was  asserted 
that  a  resort  to  the  time-honored  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  to  secure  his  release  would 
result  in  his  being  murdered. 

"(2)  That  a  deliberate  plot  was  laid  to 
murder  one  of  my  sons,  namely,  Captain 
Guy  G.  Bratton,  who  had  recently  returned 
from  France,  where  he  had  served  as  a  cap- 

*  Copy  of  memorandum  furnished  me  by  Mr,  Bratton, 
244 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

tain,  being  Division  Intelligence  Officer  of  the 
87th  Division,  and  who  had  never  even  been 
in  Phillips  County  since  his  return  from  the 
army  and  his  discharge. 

"(3)  That  it  was  publicly  asserted  that  if 
I  dared  to  enter  the  county  of  Phillips  that 
I  would  be  shot  down;  this  near-lynching, 
plot  to  murder  and  threat  against  my  life 
being  for  no  reason  other  than  the  fact  that 
I  had  dared  to  take  the  cases  of  poor,  un 
fortunate  Negroes,  who  were  being  deliber 
ately  and  systematically  robbed  of  the  fruits 
of  their  labor."  Mr.  Bratton,  speaking  as  a 
Southerner — "my  parents  and  my  grand 
parents  were  likewise  Southerners" — makes 
the  unqualified  statement  that  "the  con 
ditions  that  affect  the  colored  man  to-day 
in  the  South  are  even  worse  than  they  wrere 
before  the  Civil  War.  . .  .  The  system  of  exploi 
tation  which  goes  on  is  such  that  the  large 
majority  of  the  Negroes  work  year  in  and 
year  out  without  receiving  anything  except 
a  scant  and  bare  living.  This  system  is  so 
generally  practised  that  the  unfortunate  Ne 
groes  are  absolutely  helpless  to  protect  them 
selves." 

During  his  experience  as  Assistant  United 
States  Attorney,  Mr.  Bratton  recites,  "in- 

245 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

formation  came  to  us  that  peonage  was  being 
practised  in  parts  of  the  state;  that  certain 
parties  .  .  .  had  gone  into  the  state  of  Texas 
and  had  transported  a  large  number  of  Negro 
families  to  their  plantations  in  Arkansas; 
that  the  Negroes  were  unable  to  get  any 
settlement;  that  they  were  unable  to  get  any 
statements  of  accounts,  other  than  a  small 
slip  of  paper  upon  which  were  written  the 
words  'balance  due';  and  that  it  was  con 
tended  that  any  of  these  tenants,  all  of  whom 
it  was  claimed  were  indebted  to  these  parties, 
who  undertook  to  leave  the  state,  or,  in  fact, 
to  leave  the  premises  of  these  plantation- 
owners,  were  guilty  of  violation  of  the  law." 
After  an  investigation  by  a  special  agent 
of  the  Department  of  Justice,  "warrants 
were  issued  for  the  offending  parties  and 
full  investigations  had  before  the  United 
States  grand  jury,  resulting  in  the  indict 
ment  of  the  parties  and  their  entering  pleas 
of  'guilty'  and  paying  fines.  These  facts 
will  all  be  brought  out  by  an  examination 
of  the  records  of  the  Department  of  Justice, 
to  whom  the  reports  were  duly  made."  Open 
prosecution  of  tenants  for  leaving  farms  has 
ceased.  However,  the  landlords  "accomplish 
the  same  result  in  a  different  way."  One 

246 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

of  the  means  by  which  the  system  is  main 
tained  is  "a  private  understanding  which 
the  planters  have  among  themselves  that 
one  will  not  take  a  Negro  coming  from 
another's  plantation  who  is  indebted  to  the 
landlord  from  whose  place  he  is  coming, 
unless  he,  the  landlord  who  is  receiving  him, 
is  willing  to  pay  the  amount  it  is  claimed 
by  the  other  landlord  is  due  him."  The 
so-called  share-cropper  system  Mr.  Bratton 
describes  as  follows:  "When  the  Negroes 
start  in  the  spring  to  make  a  crop,  they  are  to 
be  supplied  with  groceries  and  other  neces 
saries  of  life,  to  enable  them  to  make  a  crop. 
The  planters  in  the  majority  of  cases  have 
what  is  called  'commissary  stores,'  from 
which  these  supplies  are  furnished.  The 
articles  are  furnished  at  whatever  prices  the 
planters  and  managers  see  fit  to  place  them, 
the  share-cropper  being  absolutely  helpless, 
as  he  has  nothing  upon  which  to  go  and  can 
not  go  anywhere  else  to  secure  supplies,  and 
hence  his  only  recourse  is  to  walk  up  to  the 
commissary  store  and  take  whatever  is 
dished  out  to  him  without  any  hesitation 
or  question.  At  the  time  that  this  is  done, 
he  is  not  permitted  to  have  any  statement 
or  bill  of  the  articles  purchased,  but  must 

247 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

permit  the  commissary -keeper  to  enter  what 
ever  figures  he  sees  fit  to  enter.  Matters 
go  on  in  this  way  until  the  crops  are  laid  by, 
then  no  more  supplies  are  furnished.  The 
Negroes  are  then  required  to  'rustle'  for 
subsistence  until  the  gathering-time,  when 
they  will  again  be  permitted  in  some  cases 
to  have  their  half  of  the  money  coming  from 
the  sale  of  the  cotton  seed.  When  they 
call  for  a  settlement,  they  are  furnished  with 
a  small  slip,  simply  stating  *  balance  due' 
so  much."  Mr.  Bratton's  report  is  volumi 
nous.  Case  after  case  is  cited,  with  names, 
dates,  and  every  sort  of  circumstantial  detail. 
"As  to  the  limits  [to]  which  the  plantation-man 
agers  will  go  before  they  will  allow  themselves 
to  be  interfered  with  in  carrying  out  their 
practices,  I  would  state  that  Sheriff  Kitchens 
himself  told  my  wife  and  the  wife  of  my  son, 
O.  S.  Bratton,  that  even  if  he  should  go  down 
onto  those  plantations  and  interfere  with 
their  laborers  that  he  would  be  shot  down. 
Attention  has  also  been  called  to  the  fact 
that  my  life  has  been  threatened  and  that 
it  had  been  said  publicly  that  if  I  dared  to 
enter  the  county  of  Phillips  that  I  would  be 
shot  down.  In  support  of  the  statement 
that  my  life  has  been  threatened  and  endan- 

243 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

gered,  I  respectfully  refer  you  to  Hon.  Henry 
Rector,  Assistant  United  States  Attorney, 
and  E.  L.  McHaney,  attorney,  both  of  Little 
Rock,  Arkansas." 

The  recital  of  a  "system"  hardly  conveys 
the  human  implications  in  suffering  and 
oppression,  cruelties  and  injustices,  which 
civilized  people  are  prone  to  think  banished 
from  the  world  until  violence  and  bloody 
disturbance  bring  them  relentlessly  in  view. 
Of  the  moving  stories  in  Mr.  Bratton's  report 
it  is  possible  to  recite  only  one,  and  that 
one  because  it  involves  not  only  a  victim, 
but  a  white  jury  and  a  state's  attorney: 

"I  have  in  mind,"  says  Mr.  Bratton,  "the 
case  of  Ben  Donagan,  a  Negro  who  lived  in 
Phillips  County,  where  this  recent  trouble 
occurred.  The  question  arose  between  him 
and  one  of  the  managers  of  the  plantation 
as  to  his  rights  in  connection  with  pay  for 
labor  done:  the  manager  then  told  him  to 
leave  the  place  and  abandon  his  crop.  The 
Negro  sought  the  man  whom  he  regarded 
as  the  owner  of  the  plantation,  laid  his  case 
before  him,  was  told  by  this  party  to  go  back 
and  keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  manager 
until  a  certain  time  when  he  would  be  upon 
the  plantation,  at  which  time  it  was  hoped 

249 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

that    the    matter    could    be    adjusted.     The 
Negro  followed  his  suggestion.     On  the  ap 
pointed  day  when  the  party  whom  the  Negro 
looked    upon    as    owner    of    the    plantation, 
and  who  in  fact  had  bargained  for  it,  and 
immediately  after  the  occurrence  became  the 
recognized  owner  of  it,  came  upon  the  planta 
tion,  the  Negro  started  to  meet  the  manager 
and    the    supposed    owner.     When    he    was 
discovered,  they  both  turned,  rode  directly 
to  him,  and  upon  meeting  him  the  manager 
deliberately   fired   into   the   Negro,   shooting 
him  down  in  the  field,  having  shot  him  five 
times.     The  supposed  owner,  being  a  doctor, 
promptly  turned  his  horse  and  rode  away  in 
the  direction  in  which  he  and  the  manager 
had  come.     He  made  no  attempt  to  inter 
fere  with  the  shooting  and  offered  no  medical 
assistance  whatever  until  later  he  returned 
and  sprinkled  some  bismuth  or  some  powder 
of  that  nature  upon  the  bleeding   wounds. 
The  Negro,  realizing  that  he  had  no  hope  of 
relief,  unless  through  the  United  States  courts, 
applied   to   us   to   represent  him.     We  filed 
suit  in  the  United  States  court  at  Helena.  .  .  . 
The  proof  was  so  clear  and  the  instructions 
to  the  court  such  that  the  jury  could  not  fail 
to    return    a   verdict,    which    they    did,    and 

250 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGO 

assessed  the  damages  for  a  man  being  shot 
five  times  and  made  a  cripple  for  life  at  the 
sum  of  one  hundred  dollars,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  proof  was  so  convincing 
that  the  jury  could  not  return  a  verdict 
otherwise;  still  there  was  no  prosecution 
in  the  criminal  courts,  and  no  indictment 
against  the  offenders  was  filed,  although 
they  were  undoubtedly  guilty  of  assault 
with  intent  to  murder  and  the  then  prosecuting 
attorney  of  the  state  courts  appeared  as  one 
of  the  defendant's  counsel  and  defended  the 
suit  in  the  United  States  court" 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  conditions  de 
scribed  in  detail  by  Mr.  Bratton  coincide 
with  those  referred  to  by  "A  Southerner" 
in  his  letter  to  The  Memphis  Commercial 
Appeal  and  with  statements  in  the  Labor 
Department's  report  on  "Negro  Migration 
in  1916-17."  The  picture  as  it  is  suggested 
by  excerpts  from  material  far  too  voluminous 
for  embodiment  in  any  but  a  publication 
of  the  federal  government  places  the  "Negro 
insurrection"  and  "massacre  of  whites"  in 
different  perspective  than  contemporary  press 
accounts.  It  shows  the  entire  machinery 
of  civilization  in  the  hands  of  a  white  group, 
many  of  whose  members  profit  from  the 

251 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

exploitation  of  the  black  man.  It  is  that 
group  which  elects  representatives  to  Congress. 
It  is  that  group  whose  voice  affects  the 
procedure  of  the  United  States,  not  only 
with  regard  to  affairs  within  the  country, 
but  in  its  commerce,  industrial  and  political, 
with  the  nations  and  the  peoples  of  the  wrorld. 
The  consideration  might  give  rise  to  anxious 
questioning  as  to  the  probable  fate  of  the 
traditions  of  tolerance,  freedom,  courage, 
of  the  quality  of  civilization,  and  the  con 
ditions  of  human  life  when  they  are  intrusted 
to  such  hands. 


IX 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 


Negro  in  the  United  States  is  looked 
upon  by  many  white  persons  mainly 
as  a  sexual  being:  he  constitutes  a  menace 
to  the  "purity  "  of  the  white  race;  his  presence 
bears  a  threat  of  racial  amalgamation.  In 
dustrial  and  political  relations  fade  into  a 
sort  of  unreality  when  the  question  of  sex 
is  raised  as  between  colored  and  white  people. 
Among  white  Americans  is  developed  a  species 
of  hysteria:  the  black  man  must  not  invade 
the  white  man's  sexual  preserve.  The  violent 
emotions  to  which  sex  jealousy  gives  rise  in 
personal  relations  find  their  counterpart  in 
popular  outbreaks.  For  the  Negro  man  there 
is  one  unpardonable  crime  in  the  United 
States  and  that  is  transgression  of  the  code 
which  makes  white  women  inaccessible  to 
all  except  white  men.  In  some  twenty-nine 
states1  marriage  between  white  persons  and 

1  According  to  The  Negro  Year  -Book  for  1918-19,  p.  204, 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

persons  of  color  is  prohibited  either  by  the 
terms  of  the  state  constitution  or  by  statute, 
and  the  white  man's  feelings  about  "mis 
cegenation"  have  the  sanction  of  law.  The 
American  white  man's  state  of  mind  has  its 
exact  counterpart  in  many  savage  or  primi 
tive  societies.  "Inter-tribal  marriages  were 
once  totally  prohibited,"  says  Dennett,  writ 
ing  of  native  Africans,  "but  to-day  marriages 
take  place,  although  the  offspring  of  such 
unions  are  looked  upon  much  in  the  same 
prejudiced  light  by  the  Bavili  as  the  offspring 
of  black  and  w^hite  races  are  looked  upon  by 
the  Europeans."  No  free  Somali,  reports 
Schurtz,1  however  poor,  would  marry  his 
daughter  to  a  despised  metalsmith,  or  would 
himself  enter  into  matrimony  with  a  daughter 
of  that  caste.  Feeling  against  race  mixture, 
at  its  very  strongest  in  North  America,  has 
no  element  that  is  especially  characteristic 
either  of  the  particular  races  or  of  the  castes 
which  happen  to  be  involved:  the  same  sort 
of  prohibitions  have  prevailed  and  still  prevail 
where  no  distinctions  of  color  play  any  part. 

Nevertheless,  sex  relations,  the  question  of 
the  absorption  of  one  race  by  another,  the 
mingling  of  colors,  are  looked  upon  as  the 

1  Heinrich  Schurtz,  Das  Afrikanische  Gewerbe,  Leipzig,  1900,  p.  43. 
254 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

irreducible  and  final  kernel  of  race  problems 
in  the  United  States.  But,  as  many  white 
Americans  would  phrase  it,  the  race  problem 
in  the  United  States  involves  a  single  simple 
decision,  "Would  you  allow  your  daughter 
to  marry  a  Negro?"  If  the  Negro  progresses, 
acquires  a  competence  and  the  means  to 
leisure  and  education,  he  at  the  same  time 
assimilates  the  white  man's  culture  and  man 
ners;  he  threatens  to  become  fit  to  associate 
with  white  men  on  the  basis  of  any  test 
which  white  men  may  erect,  except  ancestry — 
and  even  in  the  veins  of  many  persons  of 
color  flows  the  blood  of  the  most  distinguished 
white  men  of  the  nation's  past.  The  con 
ception  of  race  relations  represented  by  the 
emphasis  upon  sex  is  given  extraordinary 
currency  by  the  press,  by  politicians  who 
always  seek  to  rouse  men's  least  governable 
impulses,  and  by  white  persons  who  have 
absorbed  it  as  part  of  the  credo  that  clings 
with  all  the  tenacity  of  impressions  and 
beliefs  absorbed  in  childhood.  In  a  sense  the 
favorable  development  of  race  relations  in  the 
United  States  depends  upon  the  supplanting 
of  this  over-simplified  issue  of  sex  by  other 
more  varied  and  more  immediately  pressing 
considerations. 

255 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

The  process  which  most  gravely  menaced 
establishment  of  peace  and  order  after  the 
Civil  War  is  still  in  progress.  At  that  time 
organizations  almost  purely  political  in  their 
intent  found  a  pretext  in  the  "protection 
of  womanhood"  from  the  "Negro  fiend." 
"It  is  one  thing,"  remarks  Professor  Hart, 
"to  read  of  the  gallant  struggle  of  the  Ku- 
Klux  to  protect  womanhood  and  to  assert 
the  nobility  of  the  white  race;  it  is  quite 
another  to  be  told,  incidentally,  that  in  a 
certain  county  of  Mississippi  the  Ku-Klux 
'put  a  hundred  and  nineteen  niggers  into 
the  river.'  That  is  what  some  people  call  a 


massacre." 


The  fury  which  it  was  possible  to  stimulate 
against  Negroes  in  Omaha,  in  Washington, 
in  Atlanta,  had  many  contributing  elements, 
industrial  and  political;  but  the  direct  incite 
ment  to  violence  was  newspaper  report  of 
sexual  crime.  Persistent  endeavors  are  made 
to  keep  this  phase  of  race  hatred  alive  in  the 
South.  As  late  as  the  spring  of  1919  the 
"Loyal  Order  of  Klansmen,"  which  derived 
its  mummery  from  the  old  Ku-Klux,  published 
appeals  to  white  men  of  the  South  in  the  form 
of  huge  advertisements  in  the  newspapers. 
"We  are  an  all-Southern  order,  for  Southern 

256 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

men  of  white  race,"  said  one  advertisement, 
and  the  order  was  described  as  one  "that 
protects  the  women  of  our  Southland." 
Beneath  the  skull  and  crossbones  with  its 
inscription  "Ku-Klux  Klan"  was  printed 
the  invitation:  "Join  the  Loyal  Order  of 
Klansmen  and  you  solve  the  problem  of  law 
and  order  in  our  Southland.  With  one  mill 
ion  men  enrolled  in  the  Loyal  Order  of  Klans 
men,  our  land  will  have  peace  and  security 
and  prosperity.  If  you  wish  to  make  your 
wives  and  daughters  safe  and  happy  join  the 
Klan  to-day.  .  .  ."  The  quotations  are  from 
the  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  Sunday  Ob 
server  of  June  22, 1919.  This  claptrap  elicited 
commendation  from  the  Governor  of  Mis 
sissippi.  A  Jackson,  Mississippi,  newspaper, 
in  speaking  of  the  "Loyal  Order"  as  an  organi 
zation  "forming  in  South  Carolina  principally 
for  the  protection  of  the  white  man's  woman 
hood  and  civilization  in  the  South,"  quoted 
Governor  Bilbo  as  follows,  "I  am  strongly 
impressed  with  the  need  of  such  an  organiza 
tion  in  the  Southland  to-day,  and  wish  to 
be  one  of  the  first  to  join."  Southern  senti 
ment  was  not,  however,  unanimous  with 
regard  to  the  merits  of  the  resuscitated  Ku- 
Klux  Klan.  Governor  Bickett  of  North  Caro- 

17  257 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

lina  was  quoted  in  a  despatch  to  The  New 
York  World  of  June  30,  1919,  as  calling  upon 
"all  North  Carolinians  to  repudiate  this  'des 
perately  wicked  appeal  to  race  prejudice.'  .  .  . 
Governor  Bickett's  attack,"  continued  the 
despatch,  "which  is  said  to  be  the  first  made 
by  any  Southern  Governor  on  this  organi 
zation  which  is  secretly  sweeping  over  the 
South,  comes  in  the  middle  of  a  campaign 
for  membership."  Governor  Bickett  further 
characterized  the  undertaking  as  "a  hark 
back  to  the  lawless  time  that  followed  the 
terrors  of  the  Civil  War,  and  there  are  paraded 
before  the  mind  of  the  readers  the  terrors 
of  those  dark  days.  The  very  name  that  is 
written  on  the  death  head  is  a  subtle  appeal 
to  the  fears  and  prejudices  of  our  people. 
.  .  .  There  is  no  need  for  any  secret  order  to 
enforce  the  law  of  this  land  and  the  appeal 
to  race  prejudice  is  as  silly  as  it  is  sinful." 
Wicked,  or  silly,  or  sinful,  such  appeals  repre 
sent  a  state  of  opinion  among  large  numbers 
of  people  which  is,  at  the  least,  responsive. 
In  the  South,  people's  minds  are  easily 
wakened  to  bitter  memories,  and  the  ground 
of  hatred  does  not  have  to  be  laid.  In  the 
North,  a  subtler  propaganda  is  necessary. 
The  presumption  against  the  Negro  has  to 

258 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

be  created  by  singling  out  sexual  crimes  of 
individuals  and  making  them  seem  char 
acteristic  of  the  race.  The  process  has  been 
adverted  to  as  it  was  practised  in  Omaha 
and  in  Washington.  It  accomplished  more 
than  local  outbreaks,  however.  It  tends  to 
justify  terrorism  and  lynching  as  practices  for 
"keeping  the  Negro  down"  in  localities  where 
he  is  stronger  numerically  than  the  white 
man.  Thus,  if  one  were  to  judge  from  many 
editorial  statements  in  Southern  newspapers, 
one  would  believe  that  lynching  was  scarcely 
ever  resorted  to  except  in  punishment  for  the 
crime  of  rape  against  white  women.  The  atti 
tude  was  well  represented  in  a  letter  to 
one  of  the  newspapers  of  New  York  in 
which  the  writer  insisted  that  "no  innocent 
Negroes  are  ever  mistreated,"  and  in  an  edi 
torial  of  the  Birmingham,  Alabama,  News,  in 
which  it  is  asserted  that  "all  of  these  race 
riots  [in  the  United  States]  have  been  caused 
by  the  attempts  of  Negro  men  to  override 
the  race  line  and  to  make  white  women  the 
victims  of  their  lustful  passions."  In  view 
of  the  confident  assertions  which  are  so  fre 
quently  made,  by  Southern  editors  especially, 
it  is  worth  while  to  consider  the  available 
evidence  on  the  point.  It  appears  that  in  the 

259 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

five-year  period  1914-18  only  19.8  per  cent., 
or  less  than  one  in  five  Negroes  lynched  in 
the  United  States,  was  accused  of  attack  or 
rape  committed  upon  women.1  Of  the  77  Ne 
groes  lynched  in  the  United  States  in  1919, 
14,  or  18.2  per  cent.,  were  accused  of  assault 
upon  women.2  It  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  in  the  South  "rape"  and  "intimacy" 
of  a  colored  man  and  a  white  woman  are  not 
distinguished  in  so  far  as  the  penalty  visited 
for  the  offenses.  Both  are  punishable  by 
death  for  the  colored  man,  frequently  by 
public  burning  at  stake  and  with  ingenious 
and  perverse  torture,  such  as  the  application 
to  the  victim  of  hot  irons,  the  burning  out 
of  his  eyeballs  with  red-hot  pokers,  and  other 
mutilations  which  it  is  needless  to  describe. 
During  1919  fourteen  colored  men  were 
publicly  burned  by  mobs.  In  one  extraor 
dinary,  though  not  unique,  case  newspapers 
of  several  states  announced  the  time  of  day  at 
which  the  colored  man  would  be  burned,  and 
printed  as  part  of  the  announcement  a  state 
ment  by  the  governor  of  one  of  the  Southern 

1  Lynching  statistics  from  Thirty  Years  of  Lynching,  published  by 
the  National  Association  for   the  Advancement  of    Colored  People, 
New  York. 

2  From  records  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Colored  People. 

260 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

states  that  in  the  condition  of  public  senti 
ment  he  was  unable  to  prevent  the  murder. 
The  Jackson,  Mississippi,  Daily  News  of 
June  26,  1919,  announced  that  the  officers 
of  the  law  had  agreed  to  turn  the  colored  man 
over  to  the  mob,  to  be  burned  alive,  without 
trial:  "The  officers  have  agreed  to  turn  him 
over  to  the  people  of  the  city  at  four  o'clock 
this  afternoon,  when  it  is  expected  he  will  be 
burned."  It  is  the  thought  of  sexual  inter 
course  between  colored  men  and  white  women 
that  provokes  the  easily  roused  fury  of  many 
white  Americans  at  the  mere  mention  of 
"social  equality."  It  is  this  reservoir  of 
emotion  which  breaks  bounds  not  only  when 
Negroes  commit  crimes,  but  when  they  are 
indiscreet  enough  to  prosper.  Testimony  is 
overwhelming  on  the  point  that  the  South's 
color  psychosis  is  rooted  in  this  sex  jealousy. 
It  is  convenient  for  political  and  industrial 
purposes  to  have  such  an  easily  roused  emo 
tionality.  Any  Negro  may  be  accused  of  want 
ing  "social  equality."  Any  white  man  may 
be  accused  of  being  a  "nigger-lover"  and  of 
desiring  "social  equality"  for  Negroes.  The 
Negro  who  dares  to  "preach"  social  equality 
will  be  done  to  death.  The  white  man  will 
be  mobbed  and  driven  from  the  community. 

261 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

What  does  the  white  American  mean  by 
social  equality?  To  take  the  words  at  their 
face  value,  one  would  suppose  he  meant 
association  of  colored  and  white  persons  in 
the  home,  personal  intercourse  without  regard 
to  race.  In  practice  the  denial  of  social 
equality  is  not  confined  to  personal  relations, 
but  includes  civil  procedure.  The  socially 
inferior  Negro  is  exploited  on  the  farm 
because  white  lawyers  will  not  take  his  case 
against  white  planters.  As  soon  as  the  bar 
of  social  inferiority  is  broken  down  the  Negro 
threatens  the  white  man  with  competition. 
A  civilization  which  depends  for  its  economic 
foundation  upon  cheap  and  ignorant  labor, 
which  finds  it  necessary  to  deny  education 
to  large  numbers  of  its  colored  citizens  in 
order  to  insure  a  supply  of  that  cheap  and 
socially  inferior  labor,  cannot  face  readjust 
ment  without  grave  stresses  and  strains. 
Every  demand  for  common  justice  for  the 
Negro,  that  he  be  treated  as  a  human  being, 
if  not  as  a  United  States  citizen,  can  be  and 
is  met  with  the  retort  that  the  demand  is  for 
social  equality.  Instantly  every  chord  of 
jealousy  and  hatred  vibrates  among  certain 
classes  of  whites — and  in  the  resulting  atmos 
phere  of  unreasoning  fury  even  the  most 

262 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

moderate  proposals  for  the  betterment  of 
race  relations  take  on  the  aspect  of  impos- 
sibilism.  By  the  almost  universal  admission 
of  white  men  and  of  white  newspapers,  denial 
of  social  equality  does  not  mean  what  the 
words  imply.  It  means  that  Negroes  can 
not  obtain  justice  in  many  Southern  courts; 
it  means  that  they  cannot  obtain  decent 
education,  accommodation  in  public  places 
and  on  common  carriers;  it  means  that  every 
means  is  used  to  force  home  their  helplessness 
by  insult,  which,  if  it  is  resisted,  will  be  fol 
lowed  by  the  administration  of  the  torch  or 
the  hempen  rope  or  the  bullet. 

There  is  an  aspect  of  social  equality  which 
is  not  often  discussed.  It  involves  the  posi 
tion  of  colored  women.  White  Americans  are 
fond  of  talking  of  colored  women  as  unchaste. 
It  is  a  stigma  which  is  made  to  attach  to  all 
women  of  color  in  the  United  States.  Their 
social  inferiority  deprives  them  of  the  pro 
tection  which  is  due  their  sex,  and  the  "un 
alterable"  opposition  of  white  Americans  to 
social  equality  is  found  to  be  directed  only 
against  the  colored  men.  What  colored 
women  of  the  United  States  have  had  to 
endure  in  silence  may  yet  provide  a  national 
drama  with  the  tragedy  it  has  lacked. 

£63 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Only  in  very  recent  years  has  it  begun  to 
dawn  upon  many  white  Americans  that  if 
the  wrhite  race  is  to  be  kept  "pure,"  white 
men  as  well  as  women  must  keep  it  so.  A 
letter  to  the  Birmingham,  Alabama,  News 
written  in  October,  1919,  states  the  case 
bluntly  in  that  the  mulatto  and  "mongrel" 
race  is  laid  at  the  door  of  the  white  man  who 
"crossed  the  race  line.  .  .  .  The  sordid  de 
tails  of  the  race  crossing  and  the  inevitable 
effects  on  the  mind  and  passion  of  the  inferior 
race  are  facts  too  familiar  and  repulsive  to 
be  enumerated  here."  The^JegaLJbarriers 
to  the  intermarriage  of  white  and  colored 
people  a?|]rustified  on  racial  grounds.  It  is 
asserted  first  that  the  races  do  not  mix, 
that  the  resulting  mulattoes  are  "inferior." 
The  position  is  untenable,  as  was  show^n  in 
an  earlier  chapter.  There  is  no  evidence  to 
show  that  the  descendants  of  race  mixture 
are  inferior.  On  the  other  hand,  those  who 
wish  to  depreciate  the  Negro  point  to  the 
leaders  of  the  Negro  as  being  men  of  lighter 
color  and  ascribe  their  superiority  to  the 
admixture  of  white  blood.  The  rule  will 
hardly  work  both  ways.  As  for  racial  antipa 
thy,  its  effectiveness  is  to  be  questioned  in 
view  of  the  stringent  legislation  which  has 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

been  necessary  to  prevent  marriage  between 
white  persons  and  persons  of  color.  In  fact, 
it  is  a  tendency  well  known  to  anthropologists 
and  to  psychologists,  among  numbers  of  de 
veloped  and  heterosexual  persons  of  all  races, 
to  seek  sexual  experience  and  mates  in  mem 
bers  of  races  other  than  their  own.  To  this 
tendency  white  persons  of  both  sexes  in  the 
United  States  are  hardly  immune.  'The 
North,"  says  Professor  Hart,  "is  often  accused 
of  putting  into  the  heads  of  Southern  Negroes  \ 
misleading  and  dangerous  notions  of  social 
equality,  but  what  influence  can  be  so  potent 
in  that  direction  as  the  well-founded  con-/ 
viction  of  Negro  women  that  they  are  desires 
to  be  the  nearest  of  companions  to  white 
men?"  It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  present 
state  of  information  available  to  white  Ameri 
cans  concerning  race  and  race  mixture  the 
fury  which  greets  infractions  of  the  sexual 
code  of  the  South  cannot  be  justified  or  ex 
plained  by  a  deep-rooted  "instinct"  to  keep 
the  white  race  pure.  The  barriers  to  race 
mixture  are  primarily  social  rather  than 
instinctive  or  racial,  and  they  are  fortified 
by  a  variety  of  economic  considerations  I 

which  have  been  indicated. (^vo 
Why,   then,   have  white  men   sought  out 

205 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

colored  women?  In  slave  days  the  colored 
women  had  little  or  no  protection  against 
the  white  man.  At  present,  civil  and  indus 
trial  and  political  disabilities  where  they  are 
imposed  upon  Negroes  operate  to  deprive 
the  colored  woman  of  her  protection.  Fre 
quently  colored  women  do  not  tell  their  men 
of  insult  offered  them  by  white  men  because 
it  would  be  death  for  the  colored  man  to  ask 
redress.  In  the  spring  of  1919  a  seventy -two- 
year-old  colored  man  was  hanged  by  a  mob 
in  Georgia  because  he  dared  with  a  gun  to 
defend  two  terrified  colored  girls  from  the 
advances  of  two  drunken  white  men  who 
had  come  late  at  night  into  the  Negro-resi 
dence  district.  The  facts  in  the  case  were 
established  by  The  Atlanta  Constitution.  They 
represent  easily  exploitable  sexual  opportunity 
for  white  men  of  certain  communities  among 
colored  women.  Freudian  psychology  has  an 
explanation  for  the  strong  tendency  that  has 
been  characteristic  of  white  men  of  the  ruling 
caste  to  seek  colored  women.1  It  rests  upon 
the  principle  that  the  choice  of  the  mate  is 
influenced  by  the  characters  impressed  upon 
the  infant  male  as  belonging  to  his  mother. 
The  mother,  being  the  first  wroman  who 

1 1  am  indebted  for  this  suggestion  to  Dr.  A.  A.  Brill  of  New  York. 
2C6 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

enters  emotionally  into  the  infant's  life,  pro 
vides  a  first  pattern  which  the  man  endeavors 
to  find  again  in  his  wife.  Many  Southern 
men  of  family  were  brought  up  by  colored 
"mammies."  So  far  as  their  infantile  impres 
sions  were  concerned,  a  colored  face  and  their 
mammy's  personality  represented  to  them 
emotionally  all  that  any  mother  could.  Ar 
riving  at  sexual  maturity,  the  white  man, 
actuated  by  the  mechanism  described,  found 
himself  impelled  toward  colored  women.  At 
the  same  time  he  found  a  rigid  social  system 
discountenancing  any  legitimate  sexual  rela 
tionship  such  as  marriage.  So  he  had  either 
to  repress  his  impulse  by  the  aid  of  an  exag 
gerated  depreciation  of  colored  people  or  he 
indulged  and  found  it  necessary  to  justify 
himself  with  the  explanation  that,  being  of  an 
inferior  race,  colored  women  deserved  no 
better.  Thus  at  once  an  exception  was  es 
tablished  to  the  code  of  chivalry;  and  the 
doctrine  of  racial  inferiority  of  the  Negro  was 
fortified  by  the  emotional  mechanism  of  the 
individual.  To  some  extent  the  institution 
of  the  mammy  is  passing  and  remains  chiefly 
as  tarnished  glory  in  the  oratorical  flights  of 
reminiscent  politicians.  But  that  the  "mam 
my  complex,"  owing  to  the  close  association 

267 


THE  NEGltO  JPACES  AMERICA 

of  colored  women  and  white  infants,  had  its 
effect  upon  the  emotional  and  sex  adjustments 
of  white  and  colored  people  in  the  South, 
there  seems  strong  probability. 

To  the  colored  American  the  problem  of 
sex  relations  is  presented  quite  differently 
than  to  the  white.  The  colored  man  is  the 
object  of  the  barriers  against  intermarriage. 
If  white  men  cannot  in  many  states  openly 
marry  Negro  women,  they  may  still  live  with 
them  out  of  wedlock.  But  the  colored  man 
who  should  be  tempted  to  illicit  sex  relations 
with  a  white  woman  bears  in  mind  the  violent 
death  that  will  attend  discovery  of  his  indis 
cretion.  He  finds  that  whatever  phase  of 
race  relations  he  is  involved  in,  he  will  prob 
ably  be  accused  of  claiming  "social  equality." 
If  the  charge  can  be  proved  against  him, 
he  knows  he  must  die.  Much  of  the  increased 
bitterness  that  accompanied  the  induction  of 
American  Negroes  into  the  United  States 
army  had  to  do  with  sex  jealousy.  Fierce 
resentment  met  the  status  of  "equality" 
with  white  soldiers  that  came  automatically 
to  colored  soldiers.  A  veritable  panic  of 
apprehension  and  rage  swept  many  white 
communities  at  the  stories  which  were  widely 
circulated  concerning  the  intimacy  of  colored 

208 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

soldiers  and  white  women  in  France.  Fear, 
which  is  only  another  aspect  of  jealousy, 
motivated  the  measures  intended  to  deprive 
colored  troops  of  social  intercourse  with  white 
persons  in  France.  Fear  brought  about  the 
resentful  and  aggressive  determination  of  the 
\vhite  American  to  show  the  Negro  that, 
whatever  had  occurred  in  France,  he  was  not 
to  enjoy  "social  equality"  in  the  United 
States  and  that  white  wTomen  wrere  as  far 
as  ever  beyond  the  reach  of  his  aspiration. 
The  fact  that  the  fear  of  intimate  relations 
between  colored  soldiers  and  white  wromen 
was  fictitious  and  bore  little  relation  to  the 
facts  did  not  mitigate  the  intensity  of  the 
feeling.  Most  colored  men,  as  most  colored 
newspapers,  disclaim  for  the  American  Negro 
any  general  desire  to  intermarry  with  mem 
bers  of  the  white  race.  The  social  difficulties 
imposed  upon  persons  so  intermarrying  are 
such  that  the  situation  of  persons  entering 
upon  such  a  relationship  frequently  becomes 
intolerable.  If  intermarriage  between  Jew 
and  Gentile  offers  such  social  difficulties 
that  they  frequently  act  as  deterrents,  how 
much  greater  the  difficulties  where  there  is 
distinction  of  color.  However,  the  position 
in  which  the  colored  man  is  placed  in  the 

269 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

United  States  is  a  dangerous  challenge  to 
his  pride.  He  may  have  no  inclination  to  any 
commerce  with  women  not  of  his  own  race. 
But  when  he  is  prohibited  to  have  such  com 
merce,  when  the  prohibition  is  made  a  symbol 
of  his  "inferiority,"  he  cannot  fail  to  resent 
it.  The  case  was  put  by  Dr.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois 
in  Tlie  Crisis  of  January,  1920.  The  Negro 
might  say,  according  to  Doctor  DuBois,  that 
he  did  not  want  to  marry  a  woman  of  another 
race  "or  a  woman  may  say,  I  do  not  want 
to  marry  this  black  man,  or  this  red  man, 
or  this  white  man  .  .  .  but  the  impudent 
and  vicious  demand  that  all  colored  folk 
shall  write  themselves  down  as  brutes  by  a 
general  assertion  of  their  unfitness  to  marry 
other  decent  folk  is  a  nightmare.  .  .  ."  The 
response  is  what  might  be  expected  of  any 
human  being  to  such  a  prohibition.  It  may 
be,  and,  in  present  state  of  race  relations 
undoubtedly  is,  impracticable  that  there  be 
intermarriage  to  any  appreciable  extent.  But 
in  any  circumstances  the  question  of  inter 
marriage  could  more  safely  be  left  to  the 
decision  of  the  individuals  concerned  than  to 
politicians  with  a  vested  political  interest  in 
race  hatred.  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
the  Negro's  progress  are  such  as  to  deter 

270 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

most  white  persons  from  subjecting  them 
selves  to  them  by  marriage.  On  racial  grounds 
no  prohibition  of  intermarriage  has  as  yet 
been  justified. 

What  the  implications  are  of  the  denial 
of  social  equality  is  known  to  too  few  Ameri 
cans.  In  the  Labor  Department's  report 
of  the  migration  of  Negroes  from  Georgia 
in  1916-17  the  social  causes  playing  a  part 
are  listed  as:  injustice  in  the  courts,  lynching, 
discrimination  in  public  conveyances,  and 
inequalities  in  educational  advantages.  Some 
thing  of  the  treatment  accorded  by  white 
men's  courts  of  the  South  has  been  indicated 
in  the  story  of  the  Arkansas  riots.  It  is 
not  only  when  passion  runs  high,  however, 
that  the  black  man  has  cause  to  wonder 
at  and  bitterly  to  resent  what  the  white  man 
euphemistically  calls  justice.  Overzealous- 
ness  on  the  part  of  county  and  police  officials 
in  rounding  up  Negroes  for  petty  offenses  is 
referred  to  in  the  Labor  Department's  report 
of  the  migration  from  Georgia:  "The  limit 
fine  or  sentence  to  work  the  county  roads  is 
often  imposed."  "The  abnormal,  unwar 
ranted  activities  of  Southern  police  officers," 
says  another  of  the  Labor  Department's 
investigators,  "are  responsible  for  deep  griev- 

271 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

ances  among  Negroes.  In  many  cases  the 
police  have  been  the  tools  of  powers  higher 
up.  Many  colored  people  believe  that  em 
ployers  of  convicts  urge  the  police  to  greater 
activities  among  Negroes  in  order  to  fill  up 
convict  camps;  and,  as  if  encouraging  arrests, 
the  authorities  frequently  do  not  pay  the 
constable  and  other  petty  officers'  salaries 
for  their  services,  but  reward  them  in  accord 
ance  with  the  number  of  arrests  made.  Nat 
urally,  they  get  all  out  of  it  that  the  business 
will  stand.  The  Negro  suffers  and  pays  the 
bill."  In  the  cities  the  Negro  is  frequently 
sentenced  on  evidence  on  which  a  white  man 
would  go  free.  The  Negro's  testimony  rarely, 
if  ever,  avails  against  the  white  man.  But 
the  supreme  failure  of  the  white  man's  system 
of  justice  is  the  ascendancy  of  the  white  mob. 
The  emotion  which  animates  the  mob  has  a 
large  component  of  sex  jealousy.  Yet  lynch- 
ings  take  place  on  any  one  of  dozens  of 
pretexts.  One  colored  man  was  lynched  in 
1919  because  he  failed  soon  enough  to  turn 
out  of  the  road  for  white  men.  The  wide 
spread  belief  in  the  "racial  lust"  of  the  Negro 
stimulates  the  fury  of  a  mob.  So  suggestible 
is  the  white  man  in  consequence  that  many 
a  colored  man  has  been  lynched  because  he 

272 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY'*  AND  SEX 

followed  some  white  girl  or  because  slie 
imagined  it  and  ran  screaming  away.  The 
quality  of  justice  which  prevails  for  the 
colored  man  in  many  Southern  communities 
was  exemplified  in  the  case  of  Bragg  Williams, 
who  was  taken  from  the  Hill  County,  Texas, 
jail  and  publicly  burned  at  stake.  He  had 
previously  been  sentenced  to  death  for  murder. 
"Notice  of  appeal  from  the  sentence  was  filed 
by  Williams's  attorneys  to-day,"  said  the 
Austin,  Texas,  American  of  January  20,  1919, 
"and  this  action  is  said  to  have  led  the  mob 
to  taking  the  case  into  its  own  hands."  One 
mob  murder  was  reported  by  Walter  White, 
in  The  Crisis  of  May,  1918,  of  Jim  Mcllheron, 
a  prosperous  colored  man  who  dared  to  re 
sent  the  insults  of  white  men.  He  defended 
himself  on  one  occasion,  and  so  doing  killed 
two  white  men:  "Men,  women,  and  children 
started  into  the  town  of  Estill  Springs  from 
a  radius  of  fifty  miles.  A  spot  was  chosen 
for  the  burning.  Mcllheron  was  chained  to 
a  hickory-tree  while  the  mob  howled  about 
him.  A  fire  was  built  a  few  feet  away  and 
the  torture  began.  Bars  of  iron  were  heated 
and  the  mob  amused  itself  by  putting  them 
close  to  the  victim,  at  first  without  touching 
him.  One  bar  he  grasped,  and  as  it  was 

18  273 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

jerked  from  his  grasp  all  the  inside  of  his 
hand  came  with  it.  Then  the  real  torturing 
began,  lasting  for  twenty  minutes.  During 
that  time,  while  his  flesh  was  slowly  roasting, 
the  Negro  never  lost  his  nerve."  This  oc 
curred  in  Tennessee  in  the  year  1918.  Given 
such  exhibitions  and  those  which  accompanied 
the  brutal  doing  to  death  of  a  prosperous 
colored  farmer,  Anthony  Crawford,  at  Abbe 
ville,  South  Carolina,  it  is  not  strange  that 
many  Negroes  came  to  feel  "that  character 
and  worth  secure  no  more  protection  for 
them  than  less  desirable  qualities,  and  that 
no  Negro  is  safe."  The  contempt  for  the 
socially  "inferior"  Negro  which  makes  possible 
such  barbarity  as  83  lynchings  in  1919  man 
ifests  itself  in  many  ways.  The  exploiter 
of  the  Negro  can  use  the  denial  of  social 
equality  for  his  own  purposes,  and,  as  Mr. 
R.  H.  Leavell  found,  "under  Southern  con 
ditions  the  employing  class  can  buttress  their 
economic  exploitation  of  the  weaker  Negro 
laborer  and  absolve  themselves  by  appeal  to 
race  prejudice,  which  in  many  cases  seems  to 
have  become  a  sort  of  religion."  As  has  been 
pointed  out,  it  is  the  prosperous  Negro  against 
whom  the  denial  of  "social  equality"  is 
directed.  Labor  is  what  is  wanted,  not  human 

274 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

beings.     Said  Gov.  Theodore  Bilbo  of  Mis 
sissippi  in  reply  to  a  query  from  Chicago: 
"Your  telegram  asking  how  many  Negroes 
Mississippi    can    absorb   received.     In  reply 
I  desire  to  state  that  we  have  all  the  room 
in  the  world  for  what  we  know  as  cn-i-g-g-e-r-s/ 
but  none  whatever  for   'colored  ladies  and 
gentlemen.'     If  these  Negroes  have  been  con 
taminated  with  Northern  social  and  political 
dreams    of    equality,   we    cannot   use   them, 
nor    do    we    want    them.     The    Negro    who 
understands  his  proper  relation  to  the  white 
man  in  this  country  will  be  gladly  received 
by  the  people  of  Mississippi,  as  we  are  very 
much  in  need  of  labor."  r     Issuing  from  the 
governor  of  a  state,  the  words  might  be  sup 
posed  to  represent  some  small  group  at  least 
of  the  population  of  Mississippi.     The  indif 
ference  to  human  values  which  they  show, 
where  a  dark  skin  is  involved,  in  fact  repre 
sents  a  group  far  larger  than  any  in  Mississippi. 
To  look  upon  any  man  as  a  source  of  labor, 
and  inject  into  relations  with  his  group  con 
stant  tension  which  comes  of  potential  fury 
of  sex  jealousy,  is  to  involve  those  relations 
in  the  gravest  sort  of  danger.     Anything  any 

1  The  Crisis,  January,    1920.     Quotation    from    Chicago    Herald- 
Examiner. 

275 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

member  of  the  man's  group  does  may  be 
and  often  is  misinterpreted.  The  Negro, 
smarting  under  the  sting  of  a  peculiarly 
flagrant  injustice,  if  he  acts  to  obtain  redress, 
although  his  objective  may  be  simply  the 
injustice  in  question,  will  be  accused  by 
white  men  of  an  effort  to  bring  about  "social 
equality" — the  objective  of  the  Negro  being 
conceived  as  white  womanhood.  By  this 
process  the  relations  of  colored  and  white 
people  of  the  United  States  are  sexualized 
to  a  degree  almost  unbelievable.  It  is  upon 
the  pretext  of  the  necessity  for  maintaining 
the  "purity"  of  the  white  race  that  the  white 
supremacy  of  Southern  states  is  based.  It  is 
with  this  dogma  dominant,  and  the  emotions 
which  cling  to  it,  that  the  South  and  the 
nation  must  face  the  dilemma  of  open  and 
deliberate  violation  of  the  letter  and  the 
spirit  of  the  federal  Constitution  and  its 
amendments.  The  editor  of  the  Birmingham, 
Alabama,  News  pointed  out  on  July  11,  1919, 
that  a  reapportionment  of  representation 
in  accordance  not  with  population,  but  with 
votes  actually  cast,  would  cost  the  Southern 
states  64  Representatives:  Alabama,  7;  Arkan 
sas,  3;  Florida,  2;  Georgia,  9;  Kentucky,  1; 
Louisiana,  6;  Maryland,  1;  Mississippi,  6; 

$76 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY*'  AND  SEX 

North  Carolina,  3;  South  Carolina,  6;  Okla 
homa,  2;  Tennessee,  3;  Texas,  9;  Virginia,  6. 
Whence  is  derived  the  resistance  to  conformity 
with  constitutional  amendment  and  to  forti 
fying  the  representation  of  Southern  states 
by  having  the  colored  people  vote  for  the  men 
who  are  supposed  to  represent  them  in 
Washington?  Many  would  answer  that  the 
hostility  to  equal  opportunity  for  Negroes 
is  a  consequence  of  their  numerical  inferiority 
in  many  communities.  In  fact,  as  Professor 
Hart  remarked,  "the  hostility  to  the  Negro 
is  based  not  on  his  numbers,  but  on  his  sup 
posed  inferiority  of  character,"  and  it  is  this 
dogma  of  inferiority  that  is  used  to  make  more 
terrible  the  menace  of  the  Negro's  supposed 
aspirations  to  social  equality  and  to  white 
womanhood.  Upon  what  is  the  dogma  based? 
"The  Southern  whites,  with  few  exceptions, 
teach  no  Negroes,  attend  no  Negro  church 
services,  penetrate  into  no  Negro  society, 
and  they  see  the  Negro  near  at  hand  chiefly 
as  unsatisfactory  domestic  servants,  as  field 
hands  of  doubtful  profit,  as  neglected  and 
terrified  patients,  as  clients  in  criminal  suits 
or  neighborhood  squabbles,  as  prisoners  in 
the  dock,  as  convicted  criminals,  as  wretched 
objects  for  the  vengeance  of  a  mob."  Usually, 

£77 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

when  a  doctrine  is  so  necessary  to  social  order 
that  discussion  of  the  one  involves   destruc 
tive  criticism  of  the  other,  the  doctrine  be 
comes  divine.     This  divinity  attaches  to  the 
purity  of  the  white  race  and  to  white  woman 
hood.     The  force  which  Henry  Adams  con 
ceived   to   be   lacking   in  American  art   and 
letters,  the  Virgin  or  Venus,  has,  by  a  sort 
of  ironical  gesture,  condescended  to  the  Ameri 
can  political  scene.     Sex  is  the  motive  force 
which   makes   the   Negro's   status   dominate 
the  South  as  a  political  issue  and  a  question 
of   practical    politics.     Sex    is    the    distorted 
glass  through  which  the  Negro  is  presented 
to  view  by  the  press  of  the  country.    Southern 
politics  demands  a  statesmanship  of  prohibi 
tions    and   suppressions.     The   South's   color 
psychosis,  which  weighs  so  heavily  upon  free 
discussion  that  the  implications  of  tolerance 
are  known  only  in  small  non-political  circles, 
is  rooted  in  the  suppression  of  open  discussion 
of  sex  and  the  Negro.     Much  invective  finds 
its  way  into  public  print.     But  let  any  one 
who  believes  that  discussion  is  possible  pro 
pose  to  the  Southern  Sociological  Congress  a 
scientific  investigation  of  the  effects  of  race 
mixture.     In  a  sense  it  is  true  that  questions 
of  sex  and  social  equality  are  at  the  root 

£78 


"SOCIAL  EQUALITY"  AND  SEX 

of  the  race  problem.  They  will  continue 
to  occasion  an  easily  roused  emotionality,  at 
the  disposition  of  cheap  politicians  and  ex 
ploiters  of  labor,  just  as  long  as  they  continue 
immune  to  discussion.  Just  so  long  as  a 
panic  of  sexual  apprehension  seizes  com 
munities  in  which  Negroes  or  white  "nigger- 
lovers"  dare  to  assert  that  the  Negro  has  any 
prerogatives  which  white  men,  the  white 
man's  officers  and  courts,  the  white  man's 
society,  are  bound  to  respect,  just  so  long  will 
irreconcilable  race  conflict  be  rooted  in  the 
blind  processes  of  unreason. 

Some  critic  may  yet  pursue  relentlessly 
the  sexlessness  and  the  impotence  of  Amer 
ican  arts  and  letters.  He  might  recall  the 
picture  Samuel  Butler  drew  of  a  land  so 
dominated  by  machines  that  the  people 
finally  rose  to  throw  off  their  oppression, 
making  it  a  crime  to  carry  so  much  machin 
ery  even  as  is  contained  in  a  watch.  In 
the  United  States  he  would  find  the  chief 
force  of  sexual  expression  in  jazz.  He  would 
find  apathetic  audiences  dragged  wondering 
through  musical  Parthenons,  Gothic  cathe 
drals,  Louvres,  Pinakotheks,  and  drawing- 
rooms,  to  respond  with  an  appreciative  roar 
to  intimations  that  beyond  lay  the  jungle. 

270 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

The  Negro  may  be  excluded  from  the  dancing- 
floor,  but  he  plays  the  music.  He  may  be 
denied  orchestra  seats,  and  still  the  audience 
will  prefer  his  composition  to  Brahms's.  He 
may  not  vote,  he  may  not  mingle  socially 
with  white  people,  but  the  music  to  which 
the  jumbled  American  political  scene  seems 
to  vibrate  and  sway  is  jazz.  The  South  can 
exclude  the  Negro  from  everything  but  its 
own  thought  and  emotions  and  those  of  the 
nation. 


X 

THE  NEW   NEGRO 

American  Negro,  before  the  World 
War,  was  the  despair  of  radicals,  even 
of  liberals.  In  education  the  mass  of  colored 
people  had  been  living  on  the  discarded 
remnants,  both  text-books  and  methods,  of 
white  schools.  Politically  they  had  all  but x 
accepted  the  belief  current  in  the  Southern 
states  that  their  government  was  not  and 
would  not  be  a  democracy.  As  individuals, 
fiercely  though  their  resentment  might  blaze 
at  brutalities  and  indignities  visited  upon 
men  and  women  of  color  and  at  the  universal 
discrimination  in  industry,  they  had  to  ac 
quiesce  in  the  treatment  meted  out  to  them. 
The  avenue  to  power  for  the  colored  citizen 
apparently  lay  outside  politics,  in  acquiring 
technical  skill,  possessions  and  the  influence 
accompanying  them.  Negro  leadership,  es 
pecially  as  it  was  represented  by  Booker  T. 
Washington,  looked  to  their  becoming  in- 

281 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

dispensable  to  the  nation  as  toilers — arti 
sans  or  farmers.  The  problem  of  adjusting 
the  race  to  the  American  scene  was  envis 
aged  mainly  as  one  of  putting  it  upon  its 
feet  financially.  With  all  except  a  militant, 
though  growing,  minority,  emphasis  was  upon 
qualifying  for  the  white  man's  civilization 
by  meeting  his  economic  requirements.  Of 
this  adjustment  the  social  implication  was  a 
Negro  as  nearly  as  possible  like  the  white 
man,  at  the  expense  even  of  trying  to  be  like 
the  white  man.  Many  a  Negro  hoped  to 
achieve  peace  by  conformity;  therefore  con 
servatism  became  a  sort  of  norm  for  colored 
people  in  the  United  States.  Social  standards 
are  rarely  flexible,  and  the  tendency  of  colored 
people  to  adopt  those  of  white  persons  made 
for  a  certain  intellectual  inflexibility  in  people 
otherwise  sensitive  to  suggestion  and  to  the 
vivid  and  the  new.  This  and  a  lasting  grati 
tude  toward  the  Republican  party,  as  repre 
senting  federal  protection  for  colored  peo 
ple,  made  what  seemed  to  be  a  solid  block 
of  conservatives  of  colored  people  in  the 
United  States.  Economically,  the  attitude 
had  value  and  bore  fruit.  Even  its  bitterest 
critics  admit  the  accomplishments  of  trade 
and  agricultural  schools.  Many  colored  peo- 

282 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

pie  were  enabled  to  leave  behind  them  the 
wasting  hazards  of  casual  and  exploited  labor. 
Many,  having  obtained  business  training, 
taught  their  fellows  or  advanced  their  own 
fortunes.  The  story  of  Tuskegee,  as  Booker 
Washington  has  told  it,  has  much  that  should 
give  to  every  generous  American  pride  and 
inspiration. 

But  Negroes  in  the  United  States  found  the 
attempt  at  economic  progress  alone  insuffi 
cient.  That  progress  was  checked  by  the 
barriers  of  the  white  man's  civilization.  As 
early  as  1910  and  before  then,  groups  of 
colored  people  and  their  white  friends  realized 
that  the  white  man's  political  power  could 
be  used  to  nullify  the  Negro's  economic 
progress.  With  a  dominant  and  aggressive 
white  minority  in  control,  after  1876,  not  only 
of  the  ballot  and  political  machinery,  but  of 
courts,  no  colored  man's  progress  became 
secure.  Given  agrarian  conditions  such  as 
are  illumined  by  the  Arkansas  disorders,  with 
the  impossibility  of  obtaining  redress  and  the 
absence  of  adequate  education,  and  it  was 
obvious  numbers  of  colored  people  had  little 
or  no  opportunity  for  advancement.  Add 
to  political  and  civil  disabilities  social  dis 
crimination  directed  especially  against  the 

283 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

successful  individual  of  color,  and  Booker 
Washington's  avenue  to  freedom  became  per 
ilously  insecure.  One  of  the  most  forceful 
of  Washington's  critics,  Dr.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois, 
soon  came  to  the  conclusion  that  if  the  Negro 
,vas  to  find  existence  in  the  United  States 
tolerable  he  must  boldly  demand  and  conquer 
for  himself  full  civil  rights  and  the  ballot. 
In  the  development  of  political  consciousness 
of  the  Negro  in  the  United  States  Doctor 
DuBois  and  his  periodical,  The  Crisis,  played 
an  important  part.  Pride  and  assertion  of 
the  dignity  of  manhood  and  womanhood  for 
individuals  of  the  race  came  from  him  and 
found  increasing  response  among  colored  peo 
ple  throughout  the  nation.  Doctor  DuBois 
took  American  professions  at  their  face  value, 
and  inquired  pointedly  and  bitterly  into  mob 
violence  and  lynching,  into  segregation,  dis- 
franchisement,  and  discrimination.  Accom 
panying  the  spiritual  revolt  from  what  many 
colored  people  regarded  as  the  submissiveness 
of  Booker  Washington  and  his  followers — 
a  willingness  to  acknowledge  the  superiority 
of  the  white  man — came  the  rapid  growth  of  a 
Negro  middle  class,  with  its  professional  men, 
its  industrial  leaders,  and  its  urban  standards 
of  life  and  social  intercourse.  A  Negro  press 

281 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

grew  until  there  were  few  communities  so 
small  as  to  be  untouched  by  some  publication 
edited  by  and  for  colored  people.  It  is  in 
vidious  to  measure  the  progress  of  any  group 
of  people  by  its  economic  standing:  philoso 
phy,  fable,  and  the  most  moving  of  the  world's 
poetry  and  songs  have  come  from  slaves. 
But  the  Negro's  economic  status  conditioned 
his  political  consciousness  in  the  United. 
States.  Thus,  it  is  significant  that  in  the 
decade  1900  to  1910,  whereas  the  number  of 
Negroes  in  agricultural  pursuits  increased 
35  per  cent.,  the  increase  in  trade  and  trans 
portation  amounted  to  103  per  cent.,  and  in 
manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits  to 
156  per  cent.  The  increase  of  186  per  cent, 
represented  a  rise  in  the  number  of  Negroes 
engaged  in  industry  from  275,149  to  704,174. 
Mr.  Monroe  Work  has  published  a  statis 
tical  abstract  of  fifty-three  years  of  progress 
of  the  Negro  in  the  United  States.  His  figures 
show  an  increase  in  the  number  of  homes 
owned  from  12,000  in  1866  to  600,000  in  1919. 
In  the  same  period  colored  people  increased 
the  number  of  farms  they  operate  by  980,000. 
In  The  Negro  Year-Book  for  1918-19  Mr.  Work 
estimated  the  number  of  Negroes  engaged  in 
business  enterprises  as  not  less  than  50,000,  ex* 

285 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

elusive  of  more  than  10,000  boarding-  and  lodg 
ing-house  keepers.  An  illuminating  parallel 
of  the  industrial  advance  of  the  Negro  in 
fifty  years  shows  him  engaged  in  37  sorts  of 
business  in  1867  and  in  187  kinds  of  business 
in  1917.  In  the  latter  year  his  enterprises 
included  automobile  service  and  garage,  con 
tracting  and  building,  hotelkeeping,  lumber 
business,  real  estate,  and  banking,  tailor 
ing,  stock-raising,  and  theaters.  Insurance, 
according  to  Mr.  Work,  one  of  the  most 
important  forms  of  business  activity  of  Ameri 
can  Negroes,  is  conducted  by  their  own 
companies,  of  which  one  had  $1,944,910  in 
surance  in  force  in  1915.  For  the  bourgeoisie 
thus  developing,  a  press  was  essential.  Mr. 
Work  listed  some  450  periodicals  published 
by  or  for  Negroes  in  the  United  States, 
of  which  220  were  newspapers  and  7  were 
magazines  of  general  literature.  Among  the 
foremost  of  the  Negro  newspapers  in  the 
United  States  are  The  Chicago  Defender  with  a 
nation-wide  circulation  of  more  than  150,000, 
The  New  York  Age  and  The  News,  The  Colorado 
Statesman,  the  Atlanta  (Georgia)  Independent, 
The  St.  Louis  Argus,  The  Pittsburgh  Courier, 
and  The  Richmond  Planet.  The  develop 
ment  of  the  Negro  press  in  the  United  States 

286 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

represents  in  part  business  enterprise.  But 
its  astonishing  success,  the  multiplicity  of 
tiny  and  obscure  sheets  in  small  communities, 
as  well  as  the  avid  reception  of  powerful 
organs  like  The  Chicago  Defender  in  the  South, 
represent  a  well-founded  distrust  of  the 
accounts  of  Negro  doings  in  the  white  press. 
As  late  as  December,  1919,  the  Associated 
Negro  Press  sent  a  news  story  to  its  sub 
scribers,  pointing  out  that  in  an  Associated 
Press  (white)  report  of  a  new  diving  apparatus 
which  would  enable  salvage  operations  at 
hitherto  unattempted  depths,  the  fact  had 
been  omitted  that  the  inventor  was  a  Negro. 
Frequently  accounts  of  racial  troubles  which 
appear  in  the  Negro  press  contradict  the 
assertions  or  the  implications  to  be  drawn 
from  statements  in  the  white  press.  Where 
a  propaganda  occurs  in  the  white  press  such 
as  helped  bring  about  the  disorders  in  Omaha, 
Washington,  and  Chicago,  the  Negro  press 
vigilantly  runs  down  exaggerations  and  mis- 
statements.  Frequently,  as  has  been  said, 
the  Negro  is  better  informed  of  the  cause 
and  the  nature  of  race  conflict  than  is  the 
white  man.  Exaggerations  occur  on  both 
sides.  The  Negro  press,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
has  not  the  machinery  or  the  means  which 

287 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

make  possible  the  largest  white  news  ser 
vices,  and  bitterness  more  often  shows  itself 
obviously  in  the  presentation  of  news  in  the 
Negro  press  than  in  the  white.  The  dis 
tinction,  however,  is  one  of  subtlety  rather 
than  of  standards.  White  newspapers  have 
nothing  to  teach  the  Negro  press  of  fairness 
in  the  treatment  of  news  of  race  relations. 

How  important  the  Negro  press  has  been 
in  the  process  of  the  Negro's  becoming 
politically  articulate  can  be  measured  by  the 
statements  of  white  men.  Magazines  like 
The  Crisis  and  Challenge,  newspapers  like 
The  Defender,  are  cordially  execrated  among 
white  men  in  the  South.  An  article  in  The 
Defender  was  held  responsible  for  the  riot  in 
Longview,  Texas.  Gov.  Charles  Brough  of 
Arkansas  said  he  believed  The  Crisis  and 
Defender  were  responsible  for  the  Arkansas 
riots  and  announced  his  intention  of  asking 
the  Postmaster-General  to  exclude  them  from 
the  mails.  Measured  by  the  editorial  utter 
ances  of  their  haters  and  detractors,  Negro 
editors  have  been  potent  indeed,  for  they  are 
credited  with  the  power  of  creating  the  most 
violent  conflicts  that  American  communities 
have  known,  short  of  war.  It  will  be  seen 
that  before  the  war  the  American  Negro  had 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

the  nucleus  at  least  of  a  fully  evolved  bour 
geois  society.  Representatives  of  his  race 
served  the  government  as  legal  officers,  as 
consular  agents  with  diplomatic  responsibili 
ties.  Poets  of  the  race,  Paul  Laurence  Dun- 
bar,  James  Weldon  Johnson;  entertainers  and 
actors  among  whom  Bert  Williams  stands  out; 
essayists  and  critics  of  the  caliber  of  William 
Stanley  Braithwaite  and  Doctor  DuBois; 
musicians  of  the  rank  of  R.  Nathaniel  Dett, 
J.  Rosamond  Johnson,  Harry  Burleigh — have 
a  place  in  American  civilization  independent 
of  any  condescension  to  their  Negro  blood. 
Whether  or  not  the  American  musical  comedy 
is  an  art  form  or  merely  a  form  of  dissipation 
is  a  question  subject  to  the  vagary  of  indi 
vidual  taste.  That  it  has  been  the  medium 
through  which  countless  Americans  have  ex 
perienced  what  passes  for  instrumental  music, 
the  dance,  song,  gaiety  is  indubitable.  To  no 
small  degree  is  the  development  of  American 
musical  comedy,  its  intriguing  rhythms  and 
its  popular  songs,  due  to  colored  composers 
and  librettists.  In  the  gap  between  American 
idealism  and  the  hard-boiled  soul  of  American 
practicality  the  American  Negro  has  inter 
posed  his  warmth  and  vivacity.  More  and 
more  the  Negro  spirituals  and  plantation 

19  289 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

melodies,  debased  and  all  but  obscured  by 
jazz,  are  coming  seriously  into  their  own 
on  the  concert  stage  and  in  the  works  of 
serious  composers.  It  is  not  here  a  question 
of  comparative  merit.  The  Negro  has  intro 
duced  human  values  into  American  civilization 
of  a  sort  in  which  it  has  been  found  peculiarly 
lacking.  The  Negro  plays,  sings,  dances  for 
the  love  of  what  he  is  doing  and  experiencing. 
In  this  he  is  fitted  to  become  the  teacher  and  a 
vivifying  force  in  a  civilization  preoccupied 
by  ulterior  motives. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  all  but  name  the 
"new  Negro"  was  already  in  existence,  a 
far  cry  from  the  humble  servitor,  the  "good 
old  darky,"  the  mythical  personality  com 
pounded  of  servility,  vice,  and  gratitude. 
If  between  the  evolved  and  educated  Negro 
citizen  and  the  drifting  roustabout  of  the  far 
South  yawns  the  interval  between  the  primi 
tive  and  the  civilized,  that  same  gap  is 
observable  among  white  men  in  New  York 
City.  It  is  almost  needless  to  remind  that 
the  manner  of  the  Aurignacian  age  sometimes 
disguises  itself  in  the  language  of  United 
States  Senators.  The  "new  Negro,"  then,  is 
a  name  not  so  much  for  a  being  brought  into 
existence  during  the  World  War  as  for  that 

290 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

being's  awareness  of  himself  and  his  immediate 
problems.  Certain  colored  men,  notably  A. 
Philip  Randolph  and  Chandler  Owen,  editors  of 
The  Messenger,  a  monthly  magazine,  gave  the 
term  special  significance  in  that  they  applied 
it  to  the  class-conscious,  revolutionary  Socialist 
whom  they  in  part  represented,  but  mainly 
hoped  to  evoke.  They  took  their  theory 
and  their  terminology  from  orthodox  Marxian 
Socialism  and  preached  that  in  the  class  war, 
in  the  identification  of  the  Negro  worker  with 
working-class  solidarity  and  revolution,  lay 
the  only  solution  of  the  Negro  question  in 
the  United  States.  This  left  wing  represented 
the  farthest  swing  away  from  the  accom 
modating  optimism  of  Booker  Washington. 
It  repudiated  even  Doctor  DuBois  and  The 
Crisis,  together  with  all  reform  movements 
for  the  advancement  of  the  Negro  under 
the  capitalist  system.  The  Messenger  urged 
the  Negro's  identity  of  interest  with  the 
Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  as  a  worker 
for  the  most  part  unskilled,  without  political 
rights,  disfranchised,  and  exploited.  "The 
chief  need  of  the  Negro  is  the  organization  of 
his  industrial  power,"  said  The  Messenger 
of  October,  1919.  Emphasis  was  again  laid 
upon  the  importance  to  the  Negro  of  his 

291 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

economic  might.  But  new  standards  of  criti 
cism  had  come  into  the  Negro  press  with 
The  Messenger.  Urging  class  solidarity,  the 
editors  at  the  same  time  mercilessly  criticized 
their  own  race,  its  church,  its  leadership. 
The  men  who  had  led  the  struggle  against 
lynching,  civil  disabilities,  and  disfranchise- 
ment  were  held  up  for  observation  to  the 
"new  Negro"  as  accepters  of  the  capitalist 
state.  And  against  that  state  the  onus  of 
The  Messenger's  criticism  was  directed.  Doc 
tor  DuBois,  Prof.  Kelly  Miller,  Archibald  II. 
Grimke,  William  Pickens,  James  Weldon 
Johnson,  and  other  leaders  of  Negroes  in  the 
United  States  met  what  might  be  called 
severe  praise  at  the  hands  of  the  editors  of 
The  Messenger.  Radicalism,  for  The  Messen 
ger,  was  the  measuring-stick  for  future  leader 
ship  towrard  the  full  emancipation  of  the 
Negro.  As  the  old  leaders  showed  themselves 
susceptible  to  the  economic  interpretation 
of  social  forces  they  were  justified;  otherwise 
their  failings  were  ruthlessly  commented  upon. 
In  a  scathing  reply  to  Representative  Byrnes 
of  South  Carolina,  who  raised  the  cry  of 
"radicalism"  among  Negroes  which  the  white 
press  and  the  Department  of  Justice  took  up, 
the  editors  of  The  Messenger  stated  their 

29S 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

position  in  unequivocal  terms:  "Washington 
is  no  more,  and  with  him  has  passed  the  old 
me-too-boss,  hat-in-hand,  good  nigger  which 
you  and  your  ilk  so  dearly  love.  The  radical 
Negro  leaders  have  the  ear  and  the  hand  of 
the  masses.  The  New  Crowd  Negroes  think 
no  more  of  Moton  [Maj.  Robert  Moton,  head 
of  Tuskegee]  than  they  do  of  you  and  Cole 
Blease  and  Vardaman!  They  look  upon  him 
as  a  'good-nigger'  puppet.  We  are  also  ap 
pealing  to  the  manly  passions  of  the  Negroes 
and  inspiring  them  to  act  on  the  manly  and 
lawful  principle  of  self-defense  in  the  pro 
tection  of  their  homes,  their  lives,  and  their 
property."  As  to  the  charge  of  Bolshevism 
which  Representative  Byrnes  made,  the  editors 
had  this  to  say:  "We  would  be  glad  to  see 
a  Bolshevik  government  substituted  in  the 
South  in  place  of  your  Bourbon,  reactionary, 
vote-stolen,  misrepresentative  Democratic 
regime.  .  .  .  Negroes  perform  most  of  the 
service  in  the  South.  .  .  .  Under  the  Soviet 
system,  their  right  to  vote  would  be  based 
upon  their  service  and  not  upon  race  or  color." 
In  The  Messenger  unequivocal  demands  for 
full  equality  of  every  sort,  civic,  political, 
social,  found  voice. 

There  is  an  advantage  in  being  doctrinaire 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

familiar  to  the  propagandist  social  revolu 
tionary.  Something  more  than  doctrinaire 
pungency,  however,  appeared  in  The  Mes 
senger.  Its  editors  envisaged  the  American 
Negro  not  merely  as  a  member  of  a  closed 
group,  isolated  and  hemmed  in,  suffering  from 
and  protesting  at  injustice,  but  as  a  full 
citizen  of  the  world  with  a  part  in  its  economic 
and  political  conflicts.  With  the  instrument 
of  economic  determinism  at  their  hand,  the 
editors  of  The  Messenger  embarked  upon  a 
raking  criticism  of  attitudes  and  achievements 
among  members  of  their  own  race.  In  a 
sense  they  carried  on  Doctor  DuBois's  insur- 
gence  from  the  Booker  Washington  leader 
ship.  Like  Doctor  DuBois,  they  set  out  to 
create  new  habits  of  thought  among  Ameri 
can  Negroes,  and,  like  him,  they  represented 
an  attitude  which  had  grown  ripe  for  expres 
sion.  Their  attitude  is  shared  by  many 
colored  workers  disillusioned  with  the  disin- 
genuousness  of  conservative  labor  as  repre 
sented  in  some  unions  of  the  American  Federa 
tion  of  Labor.  It  is  shared  by  many  cultured 
and  educated  Negroes  who  find  themselves, 
by  the  terms  of  race  discrimination,  fighting 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  humblest  peo 
ple  of  color. 

Hi 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  growth  of  radical 
sentiment,  the  determination  that  race  rela 
tions  must  be  fundamentally  altered  in  the 
United  States,  was  not  sudden.  Every  Negro 
leader  of  any  vitality  was  forced  to  be  a 
radical  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  reac 
tionary  groups  of  white  people  prepared  to 
concede  nothing.  But  the  most  potent  force 
in  precipitating  radicalism  was  the  entrance 
of  the  United  States  into  the  World  War.  The 
treatment  of  the  colored  soldier  by  Americans 
in  France  and  in  their  own  country  has  been 
referred  to,  as  has  been  the  exploitation  of 
colored  people  under  the  powers  conferred 
by  "work  or  fight"  laws.  Not  many  Negroes 
became  as  articulate  in  their  disillusion  :is  the 
editors  of  The  Messenger.  But  disillusion 
set  in  that  was  nation-wide.  The  n'rm  hold 
which  the  Republican  party  had  held  on  the 
gratitude  of  the  mass  of  colored  people  began 
to  be  loosened.  The  consequence  was  not 
the  creation  of  any  definite  new  political 
alignments,  but  rather  of  an  unstable  equi 
librium  in  which  colored  people  took  stock  of 
their  resources  and  powers  and  became  in 
creasingly  aware  of  themselves  as  a  potential 
voting  block.  In  all  the  disorders  that  took 
place  in  1919  the  Negro  fought  in  self-pro- 

295 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

tection.  He  no  longer  relied  on  promises 
or  on  protection  even  of  the  federal  govern 
ment.  With  a  Democratic  administration  in 
power,  the  Negro  had  little  to  hope  from 
federal  protection  during  and  immediately 
after  the  World  War.  In  the  National  Capi 
tal  Jim-Crowism  had  crept  in.  Negroes  were 
not  served  in  the  restaurants  of  the  capital, 
and  they  found  the  attitude  of  the  South 
reflected  everywhere  in  Washington.  They 
found  the  Department  of  Justice  being  used, 
not  to  examine  into  deplorable  conditions 
which  had  brought  about  race  riots,  but  to 
trace  the  tenuous  connections  between 
"Reds,"  I.  W.  W.,  and  the  Negro,  and  to 
proclaim  Negro  insurrection  and  radicalism 
to  a  willing  press  and  a  credulous  public. 
It  is  emancipation  to  distrust  others  and  to 
rely  upon  oneself.  Never,  perhaps,  in  the 
history  of  the  country  was  there  more  dis 
trust  of  American  white  men  by  Negroes 
than  after  the  World  War.  They  had  taken 
the  measure  of  the  white  press  and  its  news- 
distributing  organizations.  They  had  seen 
local  government  crumble  and  brutality  rein 
almost  unchecked  except  by  their  own  bul 
lets.  They  had  seen  the  federal  government, 
through  its  one  department  articulate  on 

296 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

their  affairs,  pursue  not  their  oppressors, 
but  those  who  were  voicing  their  heartfelt, 
burning  sense  of  injustice.  Something  of  the 
ethics  of  real  politics  was  borne  in  upon  the 
American  Negro  by  the  treatment  accorded 
him.  Nowhere,  perhaps,  was  the  American 
Negro's  position  brought  to  more  dramatic 
focus  than  before  two  United  States  Senators 
in  Washington  in  January,  1920.  The  Sena 
tors  wTere  conducting  a  hearing  on  a  resolution 
introduced  by  one  of  them,  providing  for  a 
Congressional  investigation  into  mob  vio 
lence  and  lynching  in  the  United  States. 
The  evidence  had  been  given.  Statistics  and 
stories  of  horror  lay  in  the  typewritten  sheets 
on  the  table.  And  the  question  raised  was 
one  of  jurisdiction.  A  Senator  pointed  out 
that  the  interpretation  placed  by  the  courts 
upon  the  Constitution  and  constitutional 
amendments  prevented  legislation  by  states 
infringing  personal  liberty,  but  gave  the 
federal  government  no  power  to  act  in  pro 
tection  of  that  liberty.  The  Senators  paused. 
A  white-haired  gentleman  rose.  His  face 
was  dark  in  color  as  if  he  had  been  deeply 
sunburnt.  "Gentlemen,"  he  said,  in  effect, 
"we  come  to  you  deeply  aggrieved  by  in 
justice.  The  states  have  failed  to  protect 

297 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

us.  The  federal  government  professes  itself 
powerless.  I  am  an  old  man  of  seventy  years. 
I  have  served  my  country  abroad.  I  have 
passed  through  almost  every  phase  of  govern 
ment  service,  and,  like  many  another  of  my 
race,  have  given  freely  of  myself.  Yet  when 
we  come  to  you,  in  behalf  of  twelve  million 
American  Negroes,  you  tell  us  there  is  no 
redress  for  our  wrongs.  What  are  we  to 
expect?  What  are  we  to  hope  for?"  A 
Senator  hastened  to  express  interest,  sym 
pathy,  his  desire  to  remedy  the  conditions 
set  down  in  the  documents  before  him.  But 
the  questions:  "What  are  we  to  expect? 
What  are  we  to  hope  for?"  remained  un 
answered. 

No  intelligent  answer  to  the  question  put 
by  that  colored  leader  has  yet  been  attempt 
ed.  In  a  sense  there  is  no  solution  of  the 
problems  of  race  relations,  even  on  paper  and 
by  Northern  dilettanti.  It  is  idle  to  say,  give 
the  Negro  his  full  rights,  when  the  granting 
of  those  rights  lies  with  an  illiterate  white 
electorate  at  the  mercy  of  brutal  and  vitu 
perative  editors.  Yet  approaches  to  the  prob 
lems  have  been  made.  It  is  coming  to  be 
realized  that  the  problems  of  race  relations 

can  be  and  must  be  cleft  vertically  into  the 

HI 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

constituent  problems  of  democracy:  a  free 
press  serving  the  people  with  news,  not  rumor 
and  innuendo;  real  representation  and  control 
by  the  electorate  over  their  elected  repre 
sentatives;  proprietorship  by  the  producer 
not  only  in  political  fictions,  but  in  the  in 
dustrial  processes  which  depend  upon  him 
and  by  which  he  lives.  To  this  extent  the 
"new  Negro,"  as  he  is  represented  in  The 
Messenger,  has  affirmed  a  significant  and 
vital  fact:  there  is  no  race  question  inde 
pendent  of  other  problems  of  democracy;  race 
relations  constitute  democracy's  most  essen 
tial  problem,  a  problem  compounded  of  all 
the  other  adjustments  which  free  men  are 
called  upon  to  make  in  forming  and  main 
taining  social  relations.  Shameful  as  was 
the  year  1919,  with  bloodshed,  lynching,  and 
race  riot  in  the  United  States,  its  function 
was  still  to  bring  before  the  attention  of  the 
nation  that  a  national  problem,  long  unsolved, 
demanded  serious  attention.  A  condition 
which  had  been  glossed  over,  the  illegal  dis- 
franchisement  by  methods  of  terrorism  of 
millions  of  colored  Americans,  was  brought 
boldly  to  light.  The  Negro  became  aware 
of  his  economic  power.  The  white  South 
came  to  know  that  in  losing  Negro  labor 

S99 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

it  was  allowing  to  slip  away  the  very  foun 
dation  of  its  productivity  and  prosperity. 
And  in  a  few  communities  the  lesson  had 
already  been  learned  by  white  Americans 
that  their  colored  neighbors  were  able  and 
were  eager  to  co-operate  in  establishing  decent 
conditions  under  which  white  men  and  men 
of  color  could  live  in  peace  and  security. 

Halting  steps  were  taken  in  1919  and  early 
in  1920  to  attack  the  most  obvious  of  race 
maladjustments.  Two  resolutions,  one  in  the 
Senate  and  one  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  providing  for  Congressional  investiga 
tion  of  lynching  and  race  riots,  and  a  number 
of  bills  which  would  make  lynching  a  crime 
under  federal  jurisdiction,  showed  the  in 
creasing  attention  directed  toward  race  rela 
tions.  The  steps  proposed  were  laudable, 
but  would  leave  the  mainsprings  of  racial 
maladjustment  untouched.  The  experience 
of  Atlanta  and  of  Chicago  after  their  race 
riots  might  well  be  drawn  upon  by  the  nation. 
Here,  joint  bodies  of  colored  and  white  men 
met  to  devise  means  for  making  mob  violence 
in  the  streets  of  their  city  impossible.  In 
Illinois,  after  the  Chicago  riots,  and  in  Ar 
kansas  the  governors  of  the  states  appointed 
commissions  to  investigate  into  the  causes 

300 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

of  the  disturbances.  Communities  in  the 
South  have  discovered  the  advantage  in 
forming  joint  bodies  of  white  and  colored 
citizens  to  deal  with  matters  of  local  concern. 
In  the  course  of  such  conferences  as  have 
been  held,  both  white  and  colored  men 
have  made  interesting  discoveries  about  one 
another.  White  men  have  been  impressed 
with  the  administrative  ability  of  their  colored 
neighbors.  Colored  men  have  found,  often 
to  their  astonishment,  a  body  of  white  men 
eager  to  give  them  fair  treatment  and  equal 
opportunity. 

Unfortunately,  the  growth  of  local  co-opera 
tion  must  remain  slow.  It  depends  largely 
upon  the  emancipation  of  the  American  peo 
ple  from  their  newspapers.  Little  is  to  be 
expected  from  the  federal  government.  At 
the  hearing  in  Washington  called  to  inquire 
into  the  need  for  investigating  lynching  and 
race  riots,  one  Senator  took  occasion  to  read 
into  the  record  an  effusion  from  the  Depart 
ment  of  Justice  ascribing  race  riots  to  the 
activities  of  "Reds."  Not  even  the  Depart 
ment  of  Justice,  however,  had  the  temerity 
to  connect  "Reds"  with  lynching.  So  long 
as  the  complexion  of  the  national  legislature 
is  determined  on  the  basis  of  open  and  flagrant 

301 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

disregard  of  amendments  to  the  federal  Con 
stitution  and  violation  of  their  provisions, 
little  is  to  be  hoped  or  expected  from  that 
source.  The  Republican  party  in  its  endeavor 
to  invade  the  solid  Democratic  South  finds 
it  necessary  to  pander  to  the  South's  color 
psychosis  through  its  "lily-white"  state  or 
ganizations.  In  the  old  political  parties  there 
is  hope  neither  for  the  Negro  nor  for  the 
white  man  who  desires  a  decent  approach 
to  the  problems  of  race  relations. 

The  future  of  race  relations,  in  so  far  as 
they  are  not  allowed  to  degenerate  into 
violence  and  irremediable  bitterness,  would 
seem  to  lie  with  labor  and  with  liberal  politi 
cal  forces  that  represent  working-class  senti 
ment  as  the  old  parties  do  not  and  cannot. 
It  will  be  largely  on  the  job  and  in  the  labor 
union  that  the  identity  of  interest  of  the 
colored  worker  and  the  white  will  be  demon 
strated,  probably  despite  all  efforts  to  main 
tain  the  color  line  in  industry  by  using  un 
organized  colored  men  to  break  white  strikes. 
A  tolerable  future  for  the  relations  between 
white  and  colored  people  in  the  United  States 
depends  for  the  most  part  upon  white  labor. 
The  Negro  has  found  a  place  in  industry. 
He  has  discovered  his  strategic  importance 

302 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

in  the  contest  of  capital  and  labor.  He  has 
armed  himself  for  self-defense  and  is  pre 
pared  to  fight.  Pushing  the  issue  to  sporadic 
and  embittered  clashes  between  white  and 
colored  people  in  the  United  States  involves 
a  sort  of  smoldering  civil  war  that  no  Ameri 
can  can  contemplate  with  anything  but  deep 
concern  and  anxiety.  If  white  unions  have 
learned  from  the  northward  migration  of 
Negroes,  they  will  ignore  the  propaganda 
in  the  white  press ;  they  will  attempt  to  break 
down  the  Negro's  distrust  of  the  American 
labor  union  by  giving  him  the  square  deal. 
In  so  far  as  the  South  is  concerned,  con 
ditions  improve  as  the  Negro  moves  out. 
The  migration  northward  continued  after 
the  war  and  was  still  in  full  progress  early  in 
1920.  Yet  such  testimony  as  that  published 
by  Mr.  T.  Arnold  Hill,  referred  to  in  an  earlier 
chapter,  indicates  little,  if  any,  improvement 
in  the  treatment  of  colored  people  as  a  direct 
consequence  of  their  services  in  the  war. 
The  statement  of  the  Governor  of  Mississippi 
that  "niggers,"  not  colored  men  and  women, 
were  wanted  in  his  state  indicates  little 
perception  of  the  change  of  mind  and  attitude 
that  is  imperative.  One  is  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  in  many  parts  of  the  South 

303 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

the  Negro  can  expect  decency  only  when  his 
absence  has  hurt  the  prosperity  of  his  white 
neighbors.  When  white  planters  offer  to 
build  schools  as  an  inducement  to  Negroes 
to  stay  on  the  farms  and  to  return  from 
cities  of  the  North,  as  they  announced  late 
in  1919,  it  is  a  sign  that  the  beginning  of  a 
lesson  has  been  learned.  The  sort  of  minority 
opinion  from  which  much  that  is  hopeful  of 
better  race  relations  emanates  is  represented 
by  a  group  of  professors  in  Southern  uni 
versities,  known  as  the  University  Commission 
on  Race  Questions.  Among  the  institutions 
represented  on  the  commission  were  the 
Universities  of  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Florida, 
Georgia,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  South  Caro 
lina,  and  Texas.  The  commission  published 
four  open  letters  to  college  men  of  the  South 
in  which  lynching,  education,  the  migration, 
and  reconstruction  were  treated  forcibly  and 
with  courage.  These  Southern  professors 
pointed  out  that  of  fifty-two  persons  lynched 
in  1914,  "only  seven — two  white  and  five 
colored — or  13  per  cent.,  were  charged  with 
the  crime  against  womanhood."  Lynching 
they  termed  a  "contagious  social  disease, 
and  as  such  is  of  deep  concern  to  every 
American  citizen  and  to  every  lover  of  civili- 

301 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

zation."  They  pointed  out  ruthlessly  that 
"in  at  least  four  cases,"  of  lynching  in  1915, 
"it  later  was  discovered  that  the  victims 
of  the  mob  were  innocent  of  the  crime  of 
which  they  were  accused."  In  the  letter  on 
education,  dated  September  1,  1916,  the 
commission  pointed  out  that  "inadequate 
provision  for  the  education  of  the  Negro 
is  more  than  an  injustice  to  him;  it  is  an 
injury  to  the  white  man"  in  that  it  made 
for  inefficiency.  The  letter  on  the  migration, 
written  in  1917,  made  clear  that  humane 
treatment  would  be  effective  in  stopping  the 
exodus.  In  the  final  communication,  entitled 
"A  New  Reconstruction,"  dated  April  26, 
1919,  the  commission  urged  "a  more  general 
appreciation  of  the  Negro's  value  as  a  mem 
ber  of  the  community,"  alluded  to  his  services 
in  the  World  War,  and  spoke  of  "a  splendid 
record  of  which  the  Negroes  and  their  white 
friends  may  be  justly  proud."  Despite  a 
faint  suggestion  of  patronizing  tone,  the 
communications  of  these  professors  represent 
a  spirit  that,  if  it  is  given  expression,  will 
make  it  possible  for  white  and  black  to  live 
amicably  side  by  side.  But  such  a  point 
of  view  is  too  often  submerged  in  the  clamor 
of  the  press. 

20  305 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Little  has  been  said  thus  far  of  the  need  in 
the  United  States  of  systematic  information  on 
matters  concerning  colored  people  and  their  re 
lation  to  white  people.  Investigations  conduct 
ed  by  men  of  science  have  been  few.  The  po 
litical  obstacle  to  the  truth  about  race  and 
race  relations  weighs  upon  the  universities  of 
the  North,  even.  An  anthropologist  of  inter 
national  repute  told  me  late  in  1919  that 
he  had  for  years  been  endeavoring  to  stimu 
late  interest  in  university  studies  to  be  under 
taken  among  American  Negroes,  with  a  view 
to  making  important  racial  determinations 
of  various  sorts.  He  had  about  given  over 
his  efforts  because  the  universities  feared  to 
antagonize  those  of  their  benefactors  who  had 
preconceived  notions  on  the  subject  of  race 
and  race  relations.  Yet  the  crying  need  for 
even  elementary  facts  is  evident.  White  peo 
ple  who  call  themselves  educated  are  sub 
ject  to  the  most  amazing  delusions  and 
prejudices  with  regard  to  race,  and  especially 
with  regard  to  their  own  colored  neighbors. 
If  there  were  not  this  almost  universal 
ignorance,  colored  by  the  back-stairs  gossip 
of  newspapers,  there  would  hardly  be  occasion 
for  such  a  volume  as  this.  The  miscon 
ceptions  which  are  at  the  root  of  race  prej- 

306 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

udice  and  violence  would  long  since  have 
evaporated.  But  violence  and  prejudice  per 
petuate  themselves  by  preventing  the  acquisi 
tion  of  any  reliable  body  of  fact.  It  is  only 
from  a  realization  on  the  part  of  Americans 
white  and  colored  that  the  poison  of  color 
hatred  affects  every  phase  of  American  life, 
vitiates  politics,  is  used  to  intrench  exploiting 
classes,  to  further  the  plans  of  self-seeking 
politicians  and  editors,  to  foster  the  intoler 
ance  and  parochialism  which  make  for  im 
perialism  and  wars  of  aggression,  that  any 
demand  for  right  can  spring.  On  the  face 
of  race  relations  now  is  written  the  word 
"menace."  With  any  but  the  sort  of  ap 
pointees  that  are  to  be  expected  from  the 
Republican  or  Democratic  parties,  one  would 
be  tempted  to  urge  as  an  immediate  step  the 
creation  of  a  federal  department  of  race 
relations,  with  a  Cabinet  officer  responsible 
not  only  for  investigating  maladjustments 
where  they  show  themselves,  but  for  initiating 
campaigns  of  the  information  and  education 
of  which  the  body  of  United  States  citizens 
are  sorely  in  need.  The  one  experiment  in 
that  direction  undertaken  by  the  federal 
government,  the  Bureau  of  Negro  Economics 
of  the  Department  of  Labor,  was  permitted 

307 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

virtually  to  go  out  of  existence  for  lack  of 
appropriations  of  funds  to  carry  on  its  valu 
able  and  useful  work. 

The  chief  problem  of  race  relations  in  the 
United  States  is  the  education  of  white  peo 
ple  to  decency  in  their  attitude  toward  col 
ored  citizens.  The  nation  will  never  be 
made  whole  in  its  own  conscience  while  overt 
lawlessness  stalks  in  the  United  States  Senate 
and  the  House  of  Representatives.  Hypocrisy 
must  be  of  the  very  essence  of  American 
public  life  while  the  word  democracy  and  dis- 
franchisement  of  Negroes,  ideals  of  liberty 
and  oppression  of  colored  people  under  the 
guise  of  denying  them  "social  equality,"  are 
juxtaposed;  while  white  men  take  their  free 
dom  with  colored  women  and  torture  with 
bestial  cruelty  any  colored  man  who  has 
committed  the  crime  of  attracting  a  white 
woman's  regard.  The  first  step  in  an  ap 
proach  to  the  problems  of  race  relations 
will  be  a  demand  upon  the  part  of  United 
States  citizens  for  information,  exact  informa 
tion  not  only  of  the  anthropologist,  but  with 
regard  to  the  treatment  of  colored  men  and 
women  by  white  men  and  women  in  the 
United  States.  When  those  facts  are  made 
known,  as  some  effort  has  been  made  to 

308 


THE  NEW  NEGRO 

suggest  them  in  this  survey,  American  public 
opinion  will  demand  a  change  amounting  to 
revolution.  If  such  a  demand  is  not  made, 
antagonism  between  white  and  colored  people, 
played  upon  for  political  and  chiefly  for 
economic  and  industrial  purposes,  bolstering 
inefficiency,  ignorance,  and  Prussianism  in  the 
South,  infecting  the  entire  people  with  in 
tolerance,  will  become  one  of  many  forces  dis 
integrating  any  orderly  progress  of  civiliza 
tion.  Truly  the  United  States  stands  with 
problems  of  race  before  its  people  which, 
as  Mr.  Harold  Stearns  has  observed,  the 
Civil  War  did  not  solve,  but  created.  It 
rests  with  informed  and  intelligent  minorities, 
with  class-conscious  laborites,  colored  and 
white,  to  rescue  the  relations  between  white 
and  colored  Americans  from  the  embitterment 
into  which  they  threaten  to  gravitate.  Mean 
while  the  American  Negro,  disillusioned,  newly 
emancipated  from  reliance  upon  any  white 
savior,  stands  ready  to  make  his  unique 
contribution  to  what  may  some  time  become 
American  civilization. 


APPENDIX 

REPORT    ON    SITUATION    AT    BOGALUBA,    LOUISIANA,    BY 
PRESIDENT  OF  LOUISIANA  STATE  FEDERATION  OF  LABOR 

(Transmitted  to  the  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Colored  People  by  Frank  Morrison,  Secretary  American  Federation 
of  Labor,  in  letter  dated  February  4,  1920.) 

THE  Great  Southern  Lumber  Company  who  [sic] 
own  the  lumber  mills  and  the  pulp  and  paper 
mills  at  Bogalusa,  Louisiana,  are  perhaps  the  largest 
lumber  producers  in  the  United  States.  They  claim 
that  the  sawmill  located  at  Bogalusa  is  the  largest 
mill  in  the  world.  They  are  also  connected  with 
several  large  enterprises;  they  are  interested  in  the 
large  mill  located  at  Virginia,  Minnesota,  which  they 
claim  to  be  the  next  largest  mill  in  the  world. 

About  three  years  ago  they  put  in  a  very  large 
pulp  and  paper  mill  at  the  Bogalusa  plant,  and  about 
that  time  the  workmen  at  Bogalusa  began  to  try  to 
organize.  They  asked  for  organizers,  and  several 
attempts  were  made  to  help  the  people  there.  About 
this  time  a  young  man  named  Rodgers,  an  organizer 
for  the  carpenters  and  joiners,  went  to  Bogalusa  and 
while  there  was  arrested  as  a  suspicious  character. 
He  was  released  after  getting  the  news  to  some  of  his 
friends  in  New  Orleans;  however,  they  claimed  that 
he  was  a  dangerous  character  and  filed  charges  against 
him  in  the  federal  court  and  while  he  was  in  jail  at 

311 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Bogalusa,  the  Bogalusa  officers  had  put  dynamite 
caps  and  fuse  in  his  grip.  This  grip  was  produced  in 
the  federal  court  as  evidence,  but  their  case  was  so 
flimsy  and  so  crude  that  the  federal  authorities  dis 
missed  it  without  trial.  Later  James  Leonard,  at 
that  time  vice-president  of  the  State  Federation  of 
Labor  and  an  organizer  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  went  to 
Bogalusa  and  was  told  by  the  authorities  there  that 
they  would  not  permit  any  organizer  to  come  there  and 
organize  the  men.  Mr.  Leonard  left  Bogalusa  and 
returned  to  New  Orleans;  however,  this  did  not  stop 
the  desire  of  the  workers  at  Bogalusa,  who  were  in 
touch  with  the  state  federation;  and  later  on  W.  M. 
Donnells  was  sent  there  as  an  organizer  for  the  car 
penters,  and  organized  the  carpenters  of  the  place. 
Then,  in  rapid  succession,  the  organization  of  all  lines 
followed  until  we  had  seventeen  local  unions  at  the 
place  with  a  splendid  central  union. 

Seeing  that  the  men  had  organized  in  spite  of  their 
efforts  to  thwart  it,  the  company  became  furious 
and  tried  to  intimidate  the  members  of  the  locals; 
finding  that  this  would  not  work  they  then  started 
systematic  system  of  discharging  all  white  union 
men  and  putting  non-union  Negroes  to  work  in  their 
places  and  at  the  same  time  making  a  great  deal  of 
noise  and  trying  to  work  up  a  spirit  of  antagonism 
to  the  organization  of  Negroes,  even  telling  the  farmers 
and  planters  that  we  were  trying  to  organize  the  Negro 
farm  laborers.  This  forced  the  hand  of  labor  and  a 
campaign  of  organization  was  then  begun  to  organize 
the  Negroes  in  the  employ  of  the  Great  Southern 
Lumber  Company.  This  brought  on  quite  a  little 
feeling.  The  company  called  a  mass-meeting  of  the 
citizens,  where  several  public  men,  among  them  a 
Congressman,  made  speeches  opposing  the  organization 
of  Negroes.  Donnells  spoke  at  that  meeting  and 

312 


APPENDIX 

defended  the  right  of  labor  to  organize.  Seeing  that  the 
men  were  determined  the  company  then  entered  into 
an  agreement  to  the  effect  that  they  would  stop  dis 
charging  the  union  men  if  they  would  cease  organizing 
Negroes.  This  arrangement  Was  made  with  the  under 
standing  that  no  union  man  should  be  discriminated 
against  or  prejudiced  in  any  way  because  of  his  mem 
bership  in  a  union.  This  arrangement  had  not  been 
made  thirty  days  when  the  company  immediately 
started  discharging  both  white  and  colored  union  men, 
and  issued  an  ultimatum  from  Mr.  W.  S.  Sullivan, 
the  vice-president  and  general  manager  of  the  plant, 
that  he  would  not  recognize  any  union  man  and  that 
he  would  not  meet  nor  confer  with  any  one  repre 
senting  union  labor  and  instructed  his  office  to  so 
inform  Donnells  and  others. 

This  agreement  was  made  in  April  of  1919,  and  from 
that  time  on  things  happened  fast  at  Bogalusa.  Mr. 
Sullivan,  who  is  vice-president  of  the  Great  Southern 
Lumber  Company,  is  also  mayor  of  the  town  of  Bo 
galusa.  He  then  placed  about  thirteen  of  his  hench 
men  that  had  not  joined  labor  on  the  police  force  of 
the  town.  They  were  augmented  by  a  number  of 
deputies  appointed  by  the  sheriff  of  the  parish,  and  then 
began  a  reign  of  terror  in  the  town. 

They  tried  to  get  rid  of  all  the  leaders  by  terrorizing 
them  and  by  offering  them  bribes  to  leave  the  place. 
Finding  this  would  not  work,  they  sent  their  employ 
ment  man  to  Chicago  and  other  cities  to  secure  three 
thousand  Negroes,  with  the  intent  of  placing  non 
union  Negroes  in  the  industries  there  and  forcing  the 
union  men  to  leave.  They  failed  to  get  any  men  in 
Chicago;  I  was  informed  by  reliable  parties  in  Chicago 
that  they  did  not  offer  sufficient  wages  and  that  the  men 
were  informed  that  no  labor  trouble  existed.  How 
ever,  the  men  knew  that  they  were  wanted  as  strike- 

313 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

breakers  and  would  not  go.  On  failing  to  get  men, 
they  immediately  began  arresting  men,  both  black  and 
white,  on  all  kinds  of  trumped-up  charges  and  taking 
them  to  the  county  seat  about  twelve  miles  away. 
The  automobiles  furnished  the  police  and  deputy 
sheriffs  were  used  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  men 
to  the  county  seat,  but  the  men  when  discharged  for 
lack  of  evidence  had  to  get  back  to  Bogalusa  any  way 
they  could.  In  addition  to  this,  several  men  were 
beaten  by  these  same  gunmen;  others  were  ordered 
to  leave,  while  some  of  them  were  offered  bribes  to 
leave. 

Previous  to  this,  a  committee  had  been  appointed, 
two  by  the  company  and  two  by  the  men,  to  investigate 
wages  and  working  conditions  in  the  lumber  industry 
throughout  the  state  and  east  Texas  and  western 
Alabama  and  Mississippi.  This  committee  reported 
that  the  Great  Southern  Lumber  Company  was  paying 
less  wages  than  any  mill  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
One  of  the  men  representing  the  company  was  a  sawyer, 
who  had  at  that  time  never  joined  the  union.  However, 
when  he  was  selected  by  the  company  to  represent, 
he  accepted  and  when  the  report  was  made  he  was 
accused  by  the  company  of  not  making  a  fair  report. 
He  then  joined  the  Sawyers'  Union  and  was  soon 
made  president  of  the  union.  They  then  tried  to 
induce  him  to  leave.  He  owned  his  own  home  in  the 
town  and  also  a  small  farm  just  outside  of  the  city. 
He  was  told  by  the  henchmen  of  the  company  that  he 
had  better  sell  his  property  and  leave  the  place.  He 
refused  to  do  this,  and  while  attending  a  meeting  he 
was  called  from  the  hall,  when  seven  of  the  gunmen 
attacked  him,  placed  him  in  an  automobile,  and  ran 
him  five  miles  out  of  town,  where  they  took  him  out 
of  the  car  and  there  proceeded  to  beat  him  into  an 
almost  unconscious  condition.  They  then  dictated 

314 


APPENDIX 

a  letter  which  they  compelled  him  to  write  to  his  wife, 
telling  her  to  sell  all  their  property  and  leave  at  once, 
as  he  was  not  coming  back.  This  man,  whose  name  is 
Ed.  O'Bryan,  was  then  taken  to  a  station  on  the 
Northeastern  Railroad  and  placed  on  the  car  bound 
for  New  Orleans,  and  was  told  by  the  gunmen  that 
they  were  the  Department  of  Justice  agents,  and  that 
he  was  under  arrest  by  the  federal  authorities  as  an 
I.  W.  W.  agitator.  They  had,  in  the  mean  time, 
painted  a  sign  on  the  man's  back  which  read  "I  am  an 
I.  W.  W.,"  and  when  placed  on  the  train  they  found 
Brother  Donnells  on  the  same  train.  They  also  told 
him  that  both  he  and  O'Bryan  were  under  arrest  by 
the  federal  authorities  as  I.  W.  W.  agitators.  They 
held  guns  on  both  of  them,  and  would  not  allow  them 
to  speak  to  each  other.  At  the  first  station  out  of 
New  Orleans,  two  of  the  gunmen  got  off  the  car  while 
one  stayed  on.  On  reaching  the  yards  in  the  city, 
this  man  also  got  off  and  left  O'Bryan  and  Donnells 
alone. 

After  having  O'Bryan's  wounds  treated,  they  went 
to  the  office  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Department 
of  Justice  and  filed  complaints  from  which  nothing 
has  yet  been  heard. 

The  president  of  the  Colored  Timber  Workers'  Union 
was  another  one  they  offered  a  small  sum  of  money 
to  leave  and  sell  his  property.  He  owned  a  home  and 
some  live  stock  in  the  place,  all  told  valued  at  about 
thirty-five  hundred.  They  offered  him  two  thousand 
to  sell  this  property  and  leave.  He  refused  to  do  so. 
They  went  that  night  to  his  house  and  shot  it  to  pieces, 
and  searched  for  him.  However,  he  had  told  the 
white  labor  people  of  the  offer  to  leave  and  they  had 
gotten  him  away.  When  they  could  not  find  him, 
they  then  blamed  the  white  labor  people  for  getting 
him  away  and  then  gave  out  a  statement  to  the  press 

315 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

that  Lum  Williams  and  another  labor  sympathizer 
ha<J  paraded  the  Negro  Dacus  up  and  down  the  street 
while  they  were  heavily  armed,  and  had  defied  the 
authorities  to  arrest  him.  I  am  informed  by  a  number 
of  people,  who  are  not  members  of  labor,  that  this 
is  a  false  statement,  as  nothing  of  the  kind  was  done, 
and  the  gunmen  who  claimed  to  have  a  warrant  for 
the  arrest  of  Dacus  had  nothing  but  a  trumped-up 
charge.  That  was  their  excuse  for  going  to  Lum 
Williams's  place  on  the  following  day  where  they  mur 
dered  Williams,  who  was  president  of  the  Central 
Trades  Council,  together  with  three  others.  The  claim 
of  the  gunmen  that  the  union  men  had  arms  in  the 
building  was  untrue,  as  there  was  not  a  gun  in  the 
building.  They  drove  up  in  their  automobiles  and 
without  warning  began  to  shoot.  Williams  was  the 
first  to  appear  at  the  door  where  he  was  shot  dead, 
without  a  word  being  spoken  by  either  side.  Two 
other  men,  who  were  in  his  office  at  the  time,  were  shot 
down,  and  the  bodies  of  the  three  men  fell  one  on  top 
of  the  other  in  the  doorway.  The  other  men  attempted 
to  leave  the  building  by  the  back  door  where  two  of 
them  were  shot  down  while  coming  out  with  their 
hands  above  their  heads;  the  only  shot  fired  by  any 
man  connected  with  the  labor  people  in  any  way 
was  fired  by  a  young  brother  of  Lum  Williams  who 
shot  Captain  LeBlanc  in  the  shoulder  with  a  .22-caliber 
rifle,  after  he  had  shot  his  brother  to  death.  This 
Captain  LeBlanc  was  a  returned  soldier  and  was 
placed  in  command  of  the  gunmen  in  Bogalusa.  One 
of  the  men  wounded  at  the  back  door  of  the  building 
where  the  killing  occurred  was  taken  to  the  sanitarium 
where  he  died  three  days  later,  but  no  one  was  allowed 
to  see  him  while  he  was  alive. 

Young    Williams    was    arrested    immediately    and 
charged  with  shooting  with  intent  to  kill,  while  the 

316 


APPENDIX 

thirteen  gunmen,  who  did  the  murder,  were  not  arrested 
until  three  weeks  later,  when  the  grand  jury  took 
action  and  bound  them  over  to  await  the  final  action 
of  the  regular  session  of  the  grand  jury  in  May. 
They  were  immediately  released  on  a  bond  of  forty 
thousand  dollars  each  and  have  returned  to  Bogalusa 
where  they  are  still  armed  and  defying  the  law  of  the 
state. 

They  have  been  continually  arresting  Negroes  for 
vagrancy  and  placing  them  in  the  city  jail.  It  seems 
that  a  raid  is  made  each  night  in  the  section  of  the 
town  where  the  Negroes  live  and  all  that  can  be  found 
are  rounded  up  and  placed  in  jail  charged  with  vagrancy. 
In  the  morning  the  employment  manager  of  the  Great 
Southern  Lumber  Company  goes  to  the  jail  and  takes 
them  before  the  city  court  where  they  are  fined  as 
vagrants  and  turned  over  to  the  lumber  company 
under  the  guard  of  the  gunmen  where  they  are  made 
to  work  out  this  fine.  There  is  now  an  old  Negro 
in  the  hospital  at  New  Orleans  whom  they  went  to 
see  one  night,  and  ordered  to  be  at  the  mill  at  work 
next  day.  The  old  man  was  not  able  to  work,  and 
was  also  sick  at  the  time.  They  went  back  the  next 
night  and  beat  the  old  man  almost  to  death  and  broke 
both  of  his  arms  between  the  wrist  and  elbow.  This 
old  man  was  taken  from  the  hospital  and  went  to  the 
county  seat  and  appeared  before  the  grand  jury  and 
the  papers  made  a  big  thing  of  it  and  said  we  were 
trying  to  stir  up  race  trouble.  The  State  Federation 
has  taken  the  matter  up  with  labor  throughout  the 
state  and  we  intend  to  fight  the  thing  to  a  finish. 

However,  we  are  badly  handicapped  for  funds  to 
fight  the  combined  forces  of  the  entire  lumber  industry, 
as  they  have  organized  an  organization  to  fight  us 
and  now  have  a  man  named  Boyd,  who  was  editor  of 
The  Lumbermen's  Journal,  traveling  through  the 

317 


THE  NEGRO  FACES  AMERICA 

Southern  lumber  states  forming  local  organizations 
with  the  sole  purpose  of  defending  the  Great  Southern 
Lumber  Company  and  fighting  any  attempt  on  the 
part  of  labor  to  organize  the  lumber  industry  in  the 
South.  I  have  it  from  reliable  sources  that  they  have 
succeeded  in  lining  up  the  hardwood-lumber  people 
also  in  this  anti-union  organization.  They  are  holding 
meetings  in  all  the  towns  in  the  Southern  lumber 
states. 

We  have  employed  the  Hon.  Amos  L.  Ponder  as  an 
attorney  to  defend  young  Williams  for  the  shooting 
and  to  prosecute  the  thirteen  gunmen.  We  are  having 
some  investigating  done  and  hope  to  be  able  to  bring 
them  to  justice  along  with  those  who  are  responsible 
for  the  many  outrages  against  humanity  and  justice. 
However,  they  are  still  terrorizing  the  people  that 
live  in  Bogalusa,  and  just  last  week  Brother  Donnelly 
was  on  his  way,  in  company  with  Brother  Donnells, 
to  Bogalusa  to  hold  a  meeting.  Brother  Donnelly 
is  now  president  of  the  central  body  at  that  place. 
On  arriving  at  the  depot  in  New  Orleans  one  of  the 
gunmen  met  them  there  and  told  Donnells  that  if  he 
went  to  Bogalusa  he  would  be  murdered,  and  made 
several  threats.  They  had  him  arrested  on  two 
charges — one  for  threatening  to  kill  and  one  for  carry 
ing  concealed  weapons.  He  was  released  on  bond 
in  each  case  and,  no  doubt,  no  effort  will  ever  be  made 
to  have  him  appear  for  trial  in  New  Orleans. 

The  union  men  asked  the  Governor  of  the  state  to 
have  federal  troops  sent  to  Bogalusa,  which  he  did, 
and  which  no  doubt  prevented  bloodshed,  as  it  seemed 
that  the  Southern  Lumber  Company  had  determined  to 
get  rid  of  all  members  of  labor  .  .  .  Some  of  the 
citizens  had  become  aroused  over  the  matter,  on  one 
side  or  the  other,  till  it  looked  as  though  a  serious 
situation  had  been  reached,  and  should  the  troops 

318 


APPENDIX 

be  taken  away  and  the  gunmen  begin  again  their 
reign  of  terror,  it  is  almost  certain  that  the  citizens 
will  take  a  hand  in  the  affair.  Some  of  them  are 
friendly  to  labor  while  some  of  them  are  aiding  the 
gunmen  in  every  way  they  can.  The  citizens  of 
the  parish  have  requested  that  marshall  law  [martial 
law]  be  declared,  but  at  present  under  that  au 
thority  of  the  constitution  governing  such  matters, 
the  Governor  cannot  declare  the  parish  under  marshall 
law  [martial  law]  as  the  authorities  there  are  now 
keeping  order.  It  seems  this  is  being  done  to  assist 
the  lumber  company  in  its  effort  to  have  the  soldiers 
removed,  as  Sullivan  is  trying  to  get  the  soldiers  away 
from  there  until  such  time  as  we  are  assured  that  the 
local  civil  authorities  will  see  that  the  laws  are  enforced 
and  justice  can  be  had. 

This  report  does  not  cover  all  details  of  the  case, 
but  will  give  you  some  idea  of  the  conditions  that 
prevail  in  Bogalusa,  and  in  the  entire  Southern  lumber 
belt.  This  will  happen  anywhere  in  the  Southern 
belt  if  they  get  away  with  it  at  Bogalusa,  for  they  are 
the  one  industry  in  this  country  that  have  always 
resisted  organization  to  the  finish. 

[Signed]  T.  J.  GREER, 
President  Louisiana  State  Federation  of  Labor 


THE    END 


w 

;; 

Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 


DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


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BARYUSEONLY! 


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